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| Members of the congregation arrive at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center in Sterling, Va., Friday, Dec. 18, 2015. Religious congregations across the United States are concentrating on safety like never before following a season of violence, from the slaughter unleashed in June 2015 by a white shooter at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., to the killings this month in San Bernardino, Calif |
BIRMINGHAM,
Ala. (AP) -- In Alabama, a Presbyterian church wanted to be able
to hire its own police for protection. Mosque leaders around the country
are meeting with law enforcement officials as an anti-Muslim furor
fuels arson attacks and vandalism. And the Federal Emergency Management
Agency has been holding specialized training for congregations for "all
hazards, including active shooter incidents."
Religious
congregations across the United States are concentrating on safety like
never before following a season of violence, from the slaughter
unleashed in June by a white shooter at a historically black church in
Charleston, South Carolina, to the killings this month in San
Bernardino, California.
The Council on
American-Islamic Relations said 2015 is shaping up as the worst year
ever for U.S. mosques, amid the backlash to the Islamic-extremist
attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and the intensifying anti-Muslim
rhetoric from Donald Trump and others seeking the GOP presidential
nomination. Preliminary 2015 data collected by the civil rights
organization found 71 reported cases of vandalism, harassment and
threats, with 29 of those incidents occurring since the Nov. 13 assaults
in France.
The Anti-Defamation League, which
works to secure Jewish sites, has been organizing safety training around
the country with other faith groups, including an Austin, Texas, event
with local police and the African Methodist Episcopal Churches of
Greater Austin that drew participants from 35 churches and three
mosques. The Charleston church attacked in June, Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church, is part of the national African Methodist
Episcopal denomination.
Christian churches
have been refining their security plans ahead of receiving some of their
largest crowds of the year for Christmas. On a FEMA webinar last
Wednesday on protecting houses of worship, the chief security executive
at The Potter's House, the Rev. T.D. Jakes' megachurch in Dallas, gave
tips about behavior that should raise concern, such as a congregant
arriving in a long coat in hot weather. If needed, church greeters could
give a hug and feel for weapons, said the executive, Sean Smith.
"I call it the Holy Ghost pat-down," Smith said.
Congregations
and other religious sites have long been targets of violence and
vandalism, especially African-American churches going back at least to
the civil rights movement. In 2007, a young man on a shooting spree
killed two people at an evangelical ministry and two more at New Life
Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2012, a white supremacist
killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. And last
year, a white supremacist killed three people at a Jewish Community
Center and retirement home in suburban Kansas City.
After
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Jewish groups led an effort that persuaded
Congress to provide grants through the Department of Homeland Security
to improve protection of congregations. Even so, a 2013 poll by the
Barna Group for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance found nearly 60 percent of
Protestant churches nationwide did not have a formal security plan for
worship services.
Now anxieties over security
are reaching a new level with national attention focused on mass
shootings and terror threats, renewing debate about how far
congregations should go to protect themselves given the religious
imperative to be open to newcomers.
In
Charlotte, North Carolina, St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church, which
draws about 30,000 worshippers to its weekend Masses, this month alerted
parishioners to beefed-up security, such as uniformed and plain-clothes
police officers at services, and a ban on backpacks, baby strollers and
diaper bags in worship areas.
"People feel
that is almost like a weight lifted, in light of what is happening in
the world today," said Antoinette Usher, the facilities and operations
director at St. Matthew, which has held three security training sessions
for staff, including active-shooter training. "They were feeling a
little concerned about being a house of worship. You're facing forward.
Someone could come in from behind."
Rod Pires,
who runs a church security ministry in the Atlanta area, said he is
getting more and more requests for help, including several calls daily
from churches asking whether they should arm their members or develop a
security plan. Several states allow concealed weapons in churches,
including Arkansas, Illinois and North Dakota.
A
bill the Alabama Legislature passed in August would have let Briarwood
Presbyterian Church in metro Birmingham hire at least one police officer
and perhaps more, giving them the same authority as city or county
enforcement on properties that include the church and a large private
school. Gov. Robert Bentley refused to sign the legislation, which died
on his desk as some lawmakers and administration officials worried the
bill could open the door to private police forces statewide.
"As
soon as there's a mass shooting the phone just starts ringing off the
hook, and everyone wants a quick solution," said Pires, CEO of Church
Security 360 Degrees and former security chief at First Baptist Church
of Atlanta. But guns in worship? Pires rejects the idea without a full
security assessment and competent people trained to handle firearms.
Most
recently, concern has been focused on mosques. Last Monday, the White
House convened meetings of Muslim and Sikh leaders to discuss the uptick
in hate crimes against their houses of worship and individual members
of their faiths. Sikhs, who wear turbans, are often mistaken for
Muslims.
The alarming cases of harassment
include a November anti-Muslim rally with some armed demonstrators
outside of an Irving, Texas, mosque, and an arson attack at the Islamic
Society of Coachella Valley in California, about 75 miles from San
Bernardino. Last weekend, two mosques in the Los Angeles suburb of
Hawthorne were vandalized with paint and a fake grenade was left. And
the Anti-Defamation League, which also tracks hate crimes, said three
California houses run by the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement received
hand-written letters saying Jews should get out of "our white country"
and "take the Muslims with you."
At ADAMS in
Sterling, Virginia, one of the largest Muslim congregations in the
country, the security guards resigned, saying they felt they could no
longer protect the mosque amid the anti-Muslim uproar, ADAMS board
chairman Rizwan Jaka said. The guards have been replaced with a more
experienced team and the center's leaders are trying to reassure Muslims
worried about the risks of attending Friday prayers.
"Mosques
are targets, so it's a natural fear they might have," Jaka said. "We're
probably back to normal from a congregational attendance perspective
since we got the upgraded security."
On the
FEMA webinar, officials emphasized the need for heightened security for
all houses of worship. Katherine Schweit, chief of the active-shooter
section in the FBI's Office of Partner Engagement, explained how
congregants could create confusion to distract shooters.
"You
can fight by everyone throwing a Bible at them," Schweit said, "and I
mean that in a very respectful way because I am a Bible-fearing person."
