Sedki Riad
Riad is director of the
Islamic Center of Blacksburg.
To our brothers and sisters, members of the Blacksburg family, in the name of Allah, the merciful and the compassionate:
Officers of the Blacksburg Police Department informed us on July 1 that they concluded their investigation of the "burned Quran" incident and that it wasn't a "hate crime." Rather, it was a Blacksburg Muslim who had a house fire that caused the "burned Qurans" (July 5 news article, "Burned Qurans left by Muslim").
In his rush to the airport as he was departing to his home country, this person left the bag of burned material at the front door of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg, hoping that the center would "properly dispose" of them.
According to his testimony to the police, he left an explanation note with the material. This note was apparently blown away and was never found.
The Muslim community is very pleased with this finding, as it eliminates the concern that we all had about the possibility of a "hate crime" in our "peaceful and amicable" Blacksburg.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks and sincere appreciation to the competent police officers of the Blacksburg Police Department, in whom we all have great trust.
Despite the erroneous initial explanations, this incident gave us the opportunity to come together in confirmation of our insistence on religious toleration and the freedom of religious expression. The initiative of the Blacksburg religious leaders and the statement they released in this regard was a testimony to this confirmation of our insistence.
We certainly appreciate the town council's "anti-hate" resolution, which came as a confirmation to the citizens' appreciation of the breadth and depth of diversity in the Blacksburg community.
Also, we would like to iterate our thanks to the many citizens of Blacksburg who have showered us with their notes of support, caring phone calls and e-mails, "Quran" gifts, and lovely flowers over these past weeks in a show of solidarity and good will.