Suspicious package was discovered after YouTuber Furry Potato was harassing worshippers

On Sunday, the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) had said that they were worried because they spotted a suspicious package very close to the Islamic Center of Northridge, Granada Hills Masjid.

KABC/7 has reported that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) took action after they received a report of the suspicious package, which was very close to the mosque at 8 p.m. The LAPD bomb squad then found out that the suspicious package was a pressure cooker in a paper bag. The bomb squad didn’t want to take any chances and decided to detonate the package. Post-detonation, the pressure cooker was discovered to have been empty.

The police are puzzled about who left the package lying around near the mosque. Before the package was reported, the mosque said a YouTube personality “Furry Potato” to the police because he was harassing worshippers.

Furry Potato uploaded two long videos outside the mosque. Furry Potato filmed people going in as well as outside the mosque. The police were received by worshippers. When the police tried to ask him questions, Furry Potato refused to answer them.

CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush released a statement which said that they were all grateful that the LAPD responded quickly and that no one was hurt. Ayloush then expressed that the President tweeted that four members of Congress should go back to where they came from earlier the previous day. The tweet targeted the first two American Muslim women in Congress. Ayloush went on to say that people were then harassed while they were trying to enjoy one of their rights as per the Constitution to practice their religion. The most recent incident of a suspicious package being found outside the mosque has Ayloush believe that all of these incidents aren’t a coincidence.

I am sorry but even if you leave something simply for the intent of scaring someone you deserve some kind of punishmenthttps://t.co/zN9vWzBdrK — maygin mcewen ?? ♈ ?️‍?⛤? (@mayginmcewen) July 15, 2019

Ayloush said that anti-Muslim hate has increased over the past few years. While this has been happening, his organization has been warning people about how dangerous it is to make hate speech normal. This is because normalized hate speech will lead to hate threats as well as hate attacks against members of these targeted communities at work, schools, and places of worship.

Police have said that the area is now safe. They are also conducting an investigation so that they find the person or people responsible. It isn’t clear if the pressure cooker was left by accident or if it was a scare tactic.

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