Extremely sad to hear. May Allah protect all our masjids! May Allah give us the sense to go out and educate people about Islam!

One of the best jamaat in Houston is the one that fills Madrassah Islamia on a regular basis, five times a day, through good weather and bad, alhamdolillah. Allah protect them and His house.

Maybe there will be more Muslims taking turns in ‘itikaaf in masajid around the Western world, to protect them. Just as men spend the night at Masjid al Aqsa to help defend it from hateful aggressors.

These are days of trials for us. May Allah keep us steadfast on the right path and help us in responding to these incidents.

Very sad….may ALLAH protect all of us!

As salam alaikum

Why was the protection of Allah lifted from this masjid and its community?

Arson is the criminal, willful, or reckless ignition of fire to other people’s property. Its often a random crime of opportunity.

But the targetting of the masjid was not ramdom criminal mischief. It was meant as a political message, a threat to Muslims in Houston. It is targetting civilians and it used violence. By Texas law, it could be deemed a hate crime if the perpetrators signify any animosity towards Islam and Muslims which they undoubtably have.
Texas penal code considers hate crimes as crimes motivated by prejudice, hatred, advocacy of violence, and federal law states its crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, etc.
But the local media report it as arson, as do Muslims? But we can reasonable assume its motivated as prejudice against Muslims and Islam.

By American political standards, its an act of terrorism. The US Congress defines terrorism as premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by clandestine agents. As Islam is in the news everyday with negative bias, as teh masjid was likely specifically targetted, and many groups have threatened violence against Muslims in America, its reasonable to call this an act of terrorism even when local and state politicans and officials continually seek to downplay.

Muslims have to ask themselves: why do WE downplay the significance of this attack?
Why are WE afraid to stand up for ourselves, afraid to accuse our attackers of violent terrorism?

Abu Kamel

Take note, brothers and sister, STOP accomodating your victimization by failing to stand up strong for yourselves. Passive emotions of sadness are not sufficient.