The Civil Rights Division has announced that it's charging an Oregon man with allegedly setting a mosque in Corvallis on fire. The larger context here is that the mosque was attended by Mohamud Osman Mohamud, the 19-year old who was arrested in a plot to bomb a Portland Christmas tree that was in actuality a sting set up by the FBI. In response to a fake terror plot that was never going to take place, someone decided it was time to execute a real one.
UPDATE: The suspect, Cody Crawford, reportedly said this:
"You look like Obama. You are a Muslim like him. Jihad goes both ways. Christians can jihad too," a court document quotes Crawford as telling a McMinnville officer after his Dec. 14 arrest on a charge unrelated to the firebombing."
So not just a mere hate crime, but possibly another anti-Muslim ideologue who, like alleged Oslo terrorist Anders Breivik, embraces the concept of holy war between Christians and Muslims. Just from the "Christian" side.
