ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An Islamic advocacy group has asked police and the FBI to investigate reported threats against a Twin Cities charter school attended by many Muslims.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations made the request after the director of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Inver Grove Heights, a Twin Cities suburb, told police that he and the school had received threatening and harassing phone messages and e-mails.
The school said the threats began after a newspaper columnist questioned whether the publicly funded K-8 school promotes Islam.
Chris Schumacher, a spokesman for the Minnesota chapter of CAIR, called it "a sad reflection" of the level anti-Muslim feeling has reached in U.S. society that the column has apparently resulted in "hatred directed at innocent students."