Monday, September 29, 2008

Mosque Attacked in Dayton the Same Week as Anti-Muslim DVD Mailing


This is where we are headed. The week that a well funded 527 distributed thousands of copies of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" by mail in Ohio a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton.

DAYTON — Baboucarr Njie was preparing for his prayer session Friday night, Sept. 26, when he heard children in the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton coughing. Soon, Njie himself was overcome with fits of coughing and, like the rest of those in the building, headed for the doors.

"I would stay outside for a minute, then go back in, there were a lot of kids," Njie said. "My throat is still itchy, I need to get some milk."

Njie was one of several affected when a suspected chemical irritant was sprayed into the mosque at 26 Josie St., bringing Dayton police, fire and hazardous material personnel to the building at 9:48 p.m.

Someone "sprayed an irritant into the mosque," Dayton fire District Chief Vince Wiley said, noting that fire investigators believe it was a hand-held spray can.

According to fire dispatch communications, a child reported seeing two men with a white can spraying something into a window. That child was brought to the supervising firefighter at the scene.

Wiley would not discuss that report, but said the investigation has been turned over to police. Police were not commenting.

The 300 or so inside were celebrating the last 10 days of Ramadan with dinner and a prayer session, but the prayer session was interrupted so those suffering from tearing, coughing and shortness of breath could receive treatment.- By Kyle Nagel Dayton Daily News

I am anti censorship for sure, but the gray area between freedom of expression and hate speech has me queasy in this case. This kind of thing is going to become more common, I am afraid. And short of denouncing this kind of propaganda I feel helpless in figuring out how to stop this.

Additionally, that the corporate media has not covered this story nationally speaks volumes.

There has not been a direct link made yet between the DVD mailing and the mosque but if one is proven we have quite a serious dilemma on our hands.