PORTLAND, Ore. — The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it has notified Oregon State Police and the Portland Police Bureau about a threat to burn down its offices that was posted on the Facebook page of right-wing group Patriot Prayer.
The comment was posted by Facebook user Sean Fries. It read, "Can't we just go burn down all the offices CAIR has?" The comment has since been removed.
“Given all the recent hate attacks and threats targeting minority communities nationwide, it is incumbent on local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate this apparent call to violence against a civil rights organization,” said Zakir Khan, a spokesperson for CAIR-Oregon.
Seemab Hussaini, the vice chair of CAIR-Oregon said posts like that aren't something that can be ignored.
"It is worrisome, it's not something that we want to say that we're going to get used to," Hussaini said. "We're not going to normalize it. It is out of place. We have to be cognizant that these things are not OK."
The Portland Police Bureau told KGW they're aware of the post and said they "[take] any threat to the safety of community members seriously and will investigate such threats."
Portland Police Sgt. Chris Burley said CAIR Oregon has no locations in the city of Portland.
"However, the Police Bureau recognizes how threatening statements made on social media, in person or through any medium causes fear in our community and we will continue to work with CAIR Oregon, the Police Bureau's Muslim Advisory Council and others in the community to best ensure the safety of everyone," Burley said.
The comment was made on a post about GivingFuel, a fundraising platform, cutting ties with Patriot Prayer. CAIR-Oregon had asked GivingFuel to remove Patriot Prayer's fundraising page from its site.
A spokesperson for GivingFuel told The Oregonian it removed the Patriot Prayer page because "the actions of Patriot Prayer fell outside of our terms of use."
In a comment thread on Facebook, Patriot Prayer had the following to say in part:
"A statement threatening to burn down CAIR offices, if a genuine threat, is definitely problematic, and we would address it if it happened and we saw it . . . The comment did not come from Patriot Prayer, (we do not ever advocate for violence), and we don't share the sentiment."