The Connecticut Council on American-Islamic Relations is as asking police to step up patrols of local mosques after the Islamic Center of New Haven received a threatening letter.
The letter, which is addressed to the “Children of Satan,” calls Muslims “vile and filthy.”
It goes onto say that the “day of reckoning has arrived. Thanks [to] a new sheriff in town — President Donald Trump.”
The handwritten letter said Trump was going to “cleanse America and make it shine again. And he’s going to start with you Muslims.”
Executive director Mongi Dhaouadi said Thursday that the letter was delivered last week to the West Haven facility even though the mosque moved to Orange several years ago.
“This act of hate campaign targeting a Connecticut house of worship must be investigated by state and federal law enforcement authorities, and our state’s leaders should speak out against the growing anti-Muslim bigotry that inevitably leads to such incidents,” Dhaouadi said.
Similar letters have been sent to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, and Georgia.
Dhaouadi said he’s contacted the West Haven police and federal authorities.
The group’s national office has noted a spike in incidents targeting American Muslims since the Nov. 8 election. According to the group more than 100 anti-Muslim incidents have occurred across the country and more than 700 incidents targeting different minority groups have been documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center.