WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating a handful of apparently anti-Muslim incidents in four states, including the stabbing of a Muslim cab driver in New York City.
FBI agents and civil rights division investigators also are looking into vandalism and other incidents at mosques or mosque construction sites in Arlington, Texas; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Madera, California; and Waterport, New York.
The open criminal investigations were confirmed by civil rights division spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa in response to a query from The Associated Press.
Attorney General Eric Holder was meeting Tuesday with Muslim and other religious leaders to discuss the attacks and the uproar over a planned mosque near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the Muslim air pirates that brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers.
The religious leaders want Holder to condemn hate crimes with a forceful public statement and to order his community relations service to try to defuse tensions over plans by a Gainesville, Florida, church to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The White House, Pentagon and State Department all have said the desecration of the Quran could endanger U.S. troops and civilians abroad. The church's pastor, Terry Jones, insists he intends to go ahead.
The incidents have followed sustained criticism of the planned mosque near the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Early plans for the project known as Park51 call for a 500-seat auditorium, a Sept. 11 memorial and prayer space.
Among the incidents under investigation as potential hate crimes, all dating from July and August:
—A Muslim cab driver in New York City had his face and throat slashed in a suspected hate crime. Michael Enright of Brewster, New York, has been indicted on state hate-crime charges in the attack and could also face assault and attempted murder charges.
—Arson at the site of a future mosque in Murfreesboro, where leaders of the local Islamic Center won permission in the spring to build a new mosque after outgrowing their rented space.
—A brick nearly smashed a window at the Madera Islamic Center in central California, where signs were left behind that read, "Wake up America, the enemy is here," and "No temple for the god of terrorism."
—A fire and graffiti at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center in Arlington, Texas.
—Police arrested five teenagers after the son of one of the founders of a mosque in Waterport, New York, on Lake Ontario was sideswiped by a sport utility vehicle. One teenager was charged with firing a shotgun in the air near the mosque a few days earlier.
