US: Mosques receive hate letters in California, Georgia

NEW YORK (AA) – Three mosques in California and one in Georgia received hate letters that threaten genocide against Muslims and tell them to leave the U.S., the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said.

The letters signed as "Americans for a Better Way", were postmarked from Santa Clarita, California, north of Los Angeles, and addressed to "the children of satan".

"You Muslims are a vile and filthy people," the letters said that was first discovered during the weekend and denigrates Muslim parents and accuses Muslims of worshiping the devil.

"But your day of reckoning has arrived," it says. "There is a new sheriff in town -- President Donald Trump. He is going to cleanse America and make it shine again. And, he is going to start with you Muslims.

"He is going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews. You Muslims would be wise to pack your bags and get out of Dodge," it adds.

CAIR believes the letters are "part of the overall spike in anti-Muslim incidents nationwide", the organization’s vice president Ibrahim Hooper told Anadolu Agency.

"We are working on this and we are hoping that religious and political leaders around the country speak out against this type of growing Islamophobia," Hooper said.

Incidents of Islamophobia and a broader anti-minority sentiment have been on the rise since the Nov. 8 presidential election of Donald Trump.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says intensity and frequency of hate attack reports are even worse than the post 9/11 environment.

A fight against "radical Islamic extremism" has been a cornerstone of the hard-fought campaign run by Trump who has pledged to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. and implement policies to profile American Muslims.