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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
Jeff Cohen heard the news while at work: Two teenage shooters had opened fire on a mosque and slain three men — including the Islamic Center of San Diego’s security guard.
Once again, an attack linked to hate had targeted a house of worship.
“It’s just another one of these, and they’re as predictable as original sin, as my old mentor used to say,” Cohen said of Monday’s violence by gunmen who died of self-inflicted wounds a few blocks from the mosque.
The Texas engineer speaks from personal experience.
On Jan. 15, 2022, he survived a hostage standoff at his Reform Jewish synagogue in the Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville. The 10-hour ordeal ended when Cohen and two other remaining hostages escaped, and the FBI’s tactical team gunned down the pistol-wielding captor.
“Literally, it made me sick to my stomach,” Cohen said of the San Diego attack, more than 1,300 miles from his office. “It brings back everything.”
The Los Angeles Times reports:
The gunmen who killed three people at the San Diego Islamic Center left behind a 75-page document that preached hate, anti-Islam ideology and antisemitism and promoted violence and chaos, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told The Times.
The manifesto was titled “The New Crusade: Sons of Tarrant” and made reference to Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people and injured 89 more in an attack on a mosque and an Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, according to the sources. The FBI confirmed Tuesday that it is examining a manifesto, but did not verify the one circulating online that purports to be the attackers’ writings.
The victims in San Diego were Muslim.
The captives at Congregation Beth Israel — the congregation where Cohen now leads the security committee — were Jewish.
But in each case, the culprits spewed hate.
Cohen blames the anti-Muslim sentiment and antisemitism alike that are so prevalent in 21st century political discourse.
“It’s these tropes. It’s this rhetoric,” he said. “This is what happens when people who are a little bit unhinged already … hear this from their leaders, or from people they trust, over and over again. We can’t let this continue.”
This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
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