SARASOTA — When the news of the mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, broke, the officials at the Islamic Society of Sarasota put up their guard.
Samir Khatib, a spokesman for the organization that provides spiritual support for the Muslim community in Manatee and Sarasota counties, said they receive threats every time something similar occurs.
Khatib spoke as worshipers were leaving the Sarasota center after a service Friday afternoon, the Islamic main day for prayer.
What bothers him is that many of the incidents are not connected to the perpetrator’s religion. But because he or she may have a certain surname, the public assumes the act was done in the name of Islam.
“He’s an American boy, educated in America,” Khatib said of Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, who is suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 30 in the assault Thursday at the Army base.
“He thinks like an American,” Khatib said.
But those facts do not matter to some who have hate and vengeance in their hearts, he said.
“In the past we have received many letters,” said Khatib, who has lived in Venice for about 30 years. “We turned them over to the police.”
He said the media has a responsibility to get the message across that someone does not commit acts such as what happened in Texas because he or she is Muslim.
“Every religion has nuts,” Khatib said. “When the student at Virginia Tech killed all those students, the news didn’t say he was a Christian or a Jew.”
He said the Muslim holy book, the Quran, demands followers uphold the same precepts of love and kindness as Christians and Jews.
“Islam prohibits the taking of life,” Khatib said. “Life is sacred in Islam. The soul belongs to God.”
Regardless the religion of the person who perpetrated the killings in Texas, he said the Muslim community is upset that life was lost.
“Being Muslim, I am very, very sad when I hear about anyone dying,” Khatib said.
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