Molotov Cocktail Thrown at Dar Al-Hijrah

One Molotov cocktail and two smoke bombs  thrown into the Dar Al Hijrah complex in Falls Church, on the night of November 19, 2015, did not cause major damage to the masjid. The lit petrol bomb bounced off an iron gate at the Islamic Center and caused $200 worth of damage. 
 
Community leaders are grateful that it did not cause the the Social Services Office and Thrift Store on the property to catch on fire. Molotov cocktails can cause fire damage and are used to cause arson. Most media reports are calling it a fake bomb or a hoax device. 
 
27-year-old Chester H. Gore tried to climb over the fence at 2 a.m. at night  and threw the cocktail towards the building. DAH youth who live in the neighborhood confronted him and he ran away from the scene. They did some investigative work on their own through social media to identify him. He was charged with using a hoax explosive device, possession and use of illegal fireworks, entering the property of another for the purpose of causing damage based on religious conviction, and destruction of property, according to NBC News, on Thursday, November 19, 2015.  In a similar case in Alexandria, VA in 2012, Leon Alphans Traille, Jr., 29,  was charged with arson.
 
Gore is being held without bond at the Fairfax County jail.
 
“Rather than shutting down we are opening up, inviting our neighbors to come in and break bread with us. The community is hosting an Open Community Dinner for neighbors,” says Imam Johari Abdul- Malik, the outreach director of DAH.
 
“In Ramadan, in the richest county in America, we feed 1000 hungry people in our community every night.” The DAH Food Bank serves 250 people weekly and this week the masjid will be serving “something extra” in their baskets. 
 
Imam Johari describes Gore as an emotionally unstable man known to the youth of the community. He acted out after being fed the message of intolerance, says Johari. 
 
It is the climate of intolerance and Islamophobia stoked by Donald “Chump”,  says Imam Johari, that is giving the green light to these kind of extremists. “It is in not okay to be homophobic, but it is okay to be Islamophobic,” says Imam Johari. 
Last Saturday, a young man came in with a Bible and yelled at the worshipers.  
 
On December 5, Dar al Hijrah will send two truck loads of coats and blankets for Syrian Refugees in refugee camps overseas. Many neighboring churches and other interfaith partners are joining in solidarity and to say that they are willing to welcome Syrian refugees suffering from the largest refugee humanitarian crisis in modern history, says Imam Johari.