Virginia Imam Says ‘Jewish Group’ Made Threats After San Bernardino

By JTA December 4, 2015

A Muslim religious leader in Virginia said his mosque received a threatening phone call from someone claiming to be a member of a Jewish group.

Imam Abu Nahidian, the religious leader at Manassas Mosque in northern Virginia, received the call in the wake of the shooting Thursday in San Bernadino, California, the Washington Post reported. According to Nahidian, a voice mail from someone claiming to be part of a Jewish group threatened to kill mosque members if any victims of the shooting turned out to be Jewish.

“We are checking if one Jew has been killed in California. You all will be sorry. You all will be killed,” Nahidian reported the voice mail as saying.

Nahidian reported the phone call to law enforcement.

Fourteen people were killed and 21 wounded in the attack Thursday at a facility for adults with mental disabilities. The suspects, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, have traveled to the Middle East and reportedly had contact with Islamic extremists. Law enforcement agencies are treating the shooting as a possible terrorist attack.

None of the victims of the shooting have as yet been identified as Jewish, but one man was reportedly a Messianic Jew.

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