From NBC News
By Kari Huus, NBC News
On Sunday and Monday, when Muslims will celebrate the end of Ramadan, even many who are less observant the rest of the year will be at mosques to pray. Worshippers will celebrate, but many will do so amid heightened security after a recent spike in attacks on mosques and other places of worship.
“We recommend a security guard during prayer hours,” said Abed Ayoub, legal director of the non-profit American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC. “Take measures and use common sense. Keep an eye on people who don’t seem to fit in. We ask them to install video cameras at the doors and throughout the mosque. Limit access to areas such as the kitchen, furnace or storage where someone could hide.”
This is not the first time that Muslims have been advised to exercise caution. There was a spike in crimes aimed at the religious minority after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by Islamist terrorists, and Ayoub said there has been an increase again since 2010, starting around the time of the bitter dispute over Park 51, or so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” in Manhattan.
The latest round of cautionary alerts was set off by the bloody attack on a different religious group. On Aug. 5, six Sikh worshippers were killed and others wounded when Wade Michael Page allegedly opened fire at their temple in Oak Creek, Wis., before killing himself.
