Ellison: Moorhead mosque attack ‘sad situation’

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KVRR) – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is weighing in on the recent vandalism at a mosque in Moorhead.

Police were called Sunday morning to the Moorhead Fargo Islamic Center at 2215 12th Ave. S.

Someone sprayed painted “Death to Islam” and other hate messages on several portions of the building.

Ellison says the Moorhead incident, plus others like the Jesus statue vandalism at St. Mary’s in Fargo, have become an unfortunate “part of the landscape.” He says it’s going to take more than law enforcement to prevent similar attacks in the future.

“That is not going to get it all done.  That is necessary, but insufficient” Ellison told KVRR.

“The next thing you need to do is you need to get the mosques, the churches, the synagogues, the people of no religious faith at all, you need to get those folks to come together and say ‘Hey look, we’re not going to tolerate hate crimes in our community.’ ”

Ellison says it was encouraging to see the outpouring of local support for the mosque following the incident.

“My guess is that is was probably one or two, or three people and that they probably have a very low level of understanding or awareness about anything” Ellison added.

“Attacking someone because of their faith is a fundamentally un-American thing to do.”

Moorhead Police and the FBI are still looking for the person responsible.