Muslim leaders across North Texas say security concerns are heightened following a deadly shooting at an Islamic center in San Diego that left three people dead, including a security guard who confronted the suspected gunmen.<\/p>\n
Authorities in California are investigating Monday\u2019s shooting as a possible hate crime. Community leaders in North Texas said incidents like this often leave local worshippers on edge and prompt mosques and other faith centers to review security measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for that security guard, [the gunmen] would have had easy access to the school,\u201d said Omair Siddiqi, a North Texas Muslim community leader.<\/p>\n
Siddiqi said attacks targeting any faith group can have a widespread impact beyond the immediate community involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only Muslims and mosques, but other places of worship,\u201d he said. \u201c[They] need to make sure their security is intact, that they have protocols, security guards to make sure they\u2019re protecting themselves and the places of worship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visible security measures were already in place at some Islamic centers across North Texas this week.<\/p>\n
Security concerns remain a constant focus for Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR.<\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, the people in San Diego did have security,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cI know many of the mosques here have security, but I\u2019m saying we can always get better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
CAIR DFW plans to hold a press conference on Thursday morning to address the San Diego shooting and express support for the victims. The organization also plans to discuss a separate shooting incident under investigation in Dallas involving a member of the Muslim community.<\/p>\n
NBC 5 has reached out to Dallas police for additional information about that investigation.<\/p>\n
Carroll said the organization also plans to renew calls for unity and an end to hateful rhetoric.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to ask Texans to do something that our leaders are not doing,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cWe need to come together as a unified Texas and learn more from each other and stop the foolishness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite ongoing concerns, both Carroll and Siddiqi said they have also received support from non-Muslim community members across North Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to acknowledge that because if not, you just start thinking everyone\u2019s out to get you, and that\u2019s not true,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
Siddiqi said messages of support online and in person have helped reassure members of the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t really see a lot of kindness and the things, and there\u2019s a lot of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Muslim leaders across North Texas say security concerns are heightened following a deadly shooting at an Islamic center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3346,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-302236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-shootings","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}