For years, Bassam Issa, the president of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, has been adamant that Muslims are just like other Americans. People of other faiths would be surprised by what common ground they share with the Muslim community, he said.
“Really, the common is far more than the differences, even if the differences, as small as they are, may be fundamental,” he said. “You shall not kill. You shall take care of your neighbor. They believe in the same thing.”
But a year ago, a Muslim man from Hixson, radicalized online, did kill. On July 16, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, attacked two military facilities in Chattanooga and shot to death five service members.
FBI investigators work the scene of the July, 16 shooting at the Naval Operational Support Center on Amnicola Highway on Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith died Saturday from wounds sustained when gunman Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot and killed four U.S. Marines and wounded two others and a Chattanooga police officer at the Naval Operational Support Center shortly after firing into the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway.Shortly after the shooting, Issa told the Times Free Press that Abdulazeez’s own father called Issa to say he knew his son had put the Muslim community in great jeopardy, and he was sorry for what his son did.
In the days after the shooting, there were a few displays of anger toward Muslims. A woman on the Walnut Street Bridge held a sign that read “Ship out Arabs.” A few people stood outside of a local mosque with a sign that stated, “This religion and this building offends me.” Social media comments criticized Islam as a violent religion.