By Bob Bong
Fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East has had an impact locally as a Muslim school and mosque in Bridgeview received threats this week.
Classes at Aqsa school were called off Friday and students switched to a remote learning day after the school received an anonymous letter this week that school principal Tammie Ismail told CBS News Chicago “was very violent.”
Students at the nearby Universal School were already scheduled off for parent-teacher conferences.
Bridgeview Police Chief Ricardo Mancha said the school switched the conferences from in-person to teleconferences.
Mancha said police were notified about the letter and had an increased presence at the mosque and school on Friday, along with Cook County Sheriff’s Police.
Mancha confirmed the letter was filled with hate messages aimed at the school.
“We’re trying to figure out where it came from,” he said. “We’re investigating.”
He said there were no incidents on Friday at the school or nearby Mosque Foundation.
Ismail told CBS News, “The letter itself was very violent.” She said it was riddled with racist, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim language, and discussed killing Muslims and Palestinians.
The school also postponed a fall festival that had been scheduled for Saturday. “With heavy hearts, due to recent events happening to our brothers & sisters in Palestine and rising tensions here in our very own community, we have decided it is in the best interest of everyone that we postpone our highly anticipated festival until spring. Safety is our number one priority,” according to a post on Facebook.
Oussama Jamal, from the Mosque Foundation, told WGN the local Muslim community has not seen such threats since 9/11.
Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview also received a threat that said, “All Muslims must leave Bridgeview by Friday, Oct. 20 or die,” with Fridays being the busiest day for mosques.
“The person who made this threat knows exactly what goes on in this area, Friday is our big day,” Jamal said.
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