Iowa mosque gets threatening note calling Muslims ‘vile’

Mon, Mar 20, 2017 (2:59 p.m.)

DES MOINES, Iowa — FBI agents have met with leaders of an Iowa mosque about a threatening note it received in the mail.

Dr. Samir Shams, the president of the Islamic Center of Des Moines, says he found the handwritten note Sunday morning. It said Muslims were a "vile" people and that President Donald Trump would "do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews." The note was signed only "Americans for a Better Way."

Shams says Muslims must take such notes seriously.

An FBI spokeswoman in Omaha says agents met Monday with center members and are assessing the situation.

The Iowa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a news release seeking a hate crime investigation. It says similar messages have been sent to other mosques in Iowa and elsewhere.

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