CORVALLIS, Ore. — Anger over a Somali-born teen’s failed plan to blow up a van full of explosives during Portland’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony led to arson Sunday when a fire damaged an Islamic center where the suspect worshipped, authorities said.
Police don’t know who started the blaze or exactly why, but they said they believe the Islamic center in Corvallis was targeted because terror suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, occasionally worshipped there.
Yosof Wanly, the imam at the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center, said he was advised by friends to take his family out of their home because of the potential threat of hate crime, and members decried the purported arson attack. No one was injured, and the fire was contained to one room.
“We know how it is, we know some people due to ignorance are going to perceive of these things and hold most Muslims accountable,” Wanly said. “We do what we can, but it’s a tough situation.”
The failed attack on Portland’s Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at the Pioneer Courthouse Square on Friday is testing tolerance in what has typically been a state accepting of Muslims, and the FBI warned it would not accept retribution for Mohamud’s alleged plot.
The agency was working closely with leadership at the center as agents investigated the fire, said Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. A $10,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest.
Ahson Saeed, 25, who worships at the center, called the fire “a heinous act.”
The fire was reported at 2:15 a.m., and evidence at the scene led authorities to believe it was set intentionally, said Carla Pusateri, a fire prevention officer for the Corvallis Fire Department.
Mohamud was being held on charges of plotting to carry out a terror attack in Portland. He is to appear in court today, and it wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer yet.
On Friday, he parked what he thought was a bomb-laden van near the ceremony and then went to a nearby train station, where he dialed a cell phone that he believed would detonate the vehicle, federal authorities said. Instead, federal authorities moved in and arrested him. The bombs were fake, planted by the FBI. No one was hurt.
Authorities have not explained how Mohamud, an Oregon State University student until he dropped out on Oct. 6, became so radicalized.
Mohamud graduated from high school in Beaverton, although few details of histime there were available Saturday.
Officials said Mohamud had no formal ties to foreign terror groups, although he had reached out to suspected terrorists in Pakistan.
FBI agents said they began investigating after receiving a tip from an unidentified person who expressed concern about Mohamud. Wanly said Mohamud was religious but didn’t come to the mosque consistently.
Beginning in August 2009, e-mail exchanges led the FBI to believe that a friend of Mohamud’s in Pakistan “had joined others involved in terrorist activities” and was inviting Mohamud to join him, prosecutors said.
An agent e-mailed Mohamud, pretending to be affiliated with one of the people overseas whom Mohamud had tried to contact. Undercover agents then set up a series of face-to-face meetings with Mohamud at hotels in Portland and Corvallis.
During their first meeting July 30, Mohamud told an agent there were a number of ways he could help “the cause,” ranging from praying five times a day to “becoming a martyr.”
Mohamud replied he “thought of putting an explosion together but that he needed help doing so,” the documents said.
At a second meeting on Aug. 19 at a Portland hotel, the agent brought another undercover agent, the documents said, and Mohamud told them he had selected the courthouse square for the bombing.
On Friday, Mohamud and an undercover agent took the van containing fake explosives to the square, and Mohamud was arrested when he tried to detonate them, authorities said.
Authorities said they allowed the plot to proceed to obtain evidence to charge the suspect with attempt.
Information for this article was contributed by William McCall and Tim Fought of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 11/29/2010