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FBI, Police Investigate Threat to Decapitate Worshipers at Dallas-Area Mosque

The ominous caller claimed to be a Christian threatening "another Crusade."

Published Aug. 8, 2016

Alia Salem, CAIR executive director, speaks to Fox4
Alia Salem, CAIR executive director, speaks to Fox4

Police and federal authorities in Texas are investigating a threat to decapitate members of a mosque in the city of Watauga.

Members of the Masjid Al-Sahaabah told local Fox4 the expletive-filled voicemail was left on 30 July 2016, but they didn't hear it until nearly a week later.

The man who left the message claimed to be an Army veteran and a Christian.

“I'm a Christian, I'm gonna tell you, I'm your f***ing enemy. I hate you, and I will never be your f**kin' friend," he says in the message. “We will cut all your heads off, you understand me? All of you.”

A mosque member told the local station that while the religious center gets obscenity-filled phone messages regularly, none have gone to this extreme.

“I want to be very clear that the Muslim community has no animosity towards the Christian community, but we do ask the Christian community stand up against this kind of hatred," Alia Salem, Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Fox4. "This does not speak for the vast majority of Christians.”

Salem said the number came from a local caller. It's the fourth threat to Dallas-Fort Worth-area mosques serious enough to merit a call to authorities.

"When he started talking about chopping off people's heads and launching a crusade against Muslims," Salem said, "that's when it started to get scary because that's an actionable threat."

Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who has been working in the news industry since 2006.

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