The area around San Bernardino, California was the site of intense debates about Muslim immigration in the immediate days before Wednesday night’s horrific mass shooting.
Police searched a home in Redlands, California, fifteen minutes away from where the shooting occurred as part of its investigation into the suspects. Thus far, the name Syed Farook has been given as a suspect in the case.
The U.S. State Department recently chose Redlands as the proposed site of a Syrian refugee settlement due to its already active Middle Eastern immigrant community. Catholic Charities was identified as a broker for the federal government program.
Citizens in Redlands, California took action in response to the area’s Muslim immigration threat, appearing before the town’s mayor in a public forum in October to voice their concerns.
Groups including Redlands Tea Party, Redlands Townhall, and Redlands Tea Party Patriots expressed concern about this issue, and two op-eds (HERE AND HERE) appeared in local publications.
The situation got so heated that the Islamic Center of Redlands held an “Open Mosque Day” in mid-October to try to quell the community’s concerns.
“I don’t care to be politically correct any longer. This is just a plan for disaster,” one concerned woman told town officials at the public forum in video footage obtained by Breitbart News:
As Breitbart News reported, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) quickly moved into the area to hold a Wednesday night presser pushing back against charges that Islam is responsible for the mass shooting. CAIR featured a local mosque leader named Muzammil Siddiqi, who once said that Muslim suicide bombers die for “justice” and served as a veritable religious adviser to a suspected al Qaeda operative who was part of his mosque.