Man killed in fire helped shape local Muslim community

Since arriving in the High Desert, Ali Mohammed has worked to build up the Muslim communities in the Barstow and Victorville areas.

Mohammed founded the High Desert Islamic Society in Victorville eight years ago, built mosques in Barstow and Yermo, and even paid visits to the Muslim community in Riverside, according to Yousef Farha, religious affairs coordinator for the society.

“He was one of the most active members,” said Farha, of the 1,000-member group.

Because of that, members of the local Muslim community are feeling the reverberations of Mohammed’s death. The 51-year-old died in a house fire in Yermo on June 27. Family members are raising concerns that the fire may not have simply been an accident and cited racist sentiments directed towards the family.

The family also noted a fire in February 2007 where a mosque that Mohammed set up in Yermo was burned down and two teenagers were arrested. At the time, however, deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department did not call the incident a hate crime.

Mohammed was known as an “imam,” a title given to the leader of a mosque.

He was the main speaker at the High Desert Islamic Society’s meetings for four years, said Farha, who described Mohammed as a “missionary for Islam” who was knowledgeable yet humble.

“Through his knowledge he was trying to establish those religious centers,” Farha said.

Mohammed and his family lived in Yermo for four years, but moved to Victorville in mid-June, according to Suad Mohd, Mohammed’s wife.

According to his 21-year-old son, Jordan, Mohammed had been receiving an increasing amount of racist threats.

There had been past incidents of race- or religion-driven harassment, said Jordan, the eldest of six children.

“A lot of people threatened my sister for wearing the ‘hijab,’” he said, referring to the traditional head covering worn by Muslim women.

“My father decided it’s best for us to move,” said Jordan. The family had vacated their Yermo home for several days when Mohammed returned on June 25, two days before the fire, to discover that vandals had broken into the almost empty house and spray-painted racial epithets and Nazi symbols on the walls, which Mohammed photographed. He did not report it to law enforcement officials, though, Jordan said.

“He just wanted to paint over it so he could rent [it out],” he said. According to Jordan, his father had reported racial harassment to the sheriff’s deputies in the past and was dissatisfied with their responses.

Then on Saturday, when Mohammed drove from Victorville to Yermo to tie up loose ends at their old house, he never returned home.

Firefighters discovered his remains after putting out a fire that destroyed the building and only left charred remains. Several neighbors reported hearing a large explosion right around the time the fire occurred.

Dan Glozer, a detective with the sheriff’s bomb and arson investigation unit, said they are still trying to determine the cause of the fire.

When asked whether investigators are looking into a connection to the February 2007 mosque fire, Glozer said that “everthing is being looked at. ... The investigation is ongoing.”

Local Muslim groups have not only felt the ripples, but are speaking out. A Los Angeles-based Muslim civil rights group has labeled the event a “possible hate crime” and is calling on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into the incident.

Munira Syeda, communications manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said the group wants to see the perpetrators brought to justice.

Officials from the county coroner’s office have said the autopsy results will be finalized Friday, said Jordan.

“It’s an extremely tragic situation,” said Syeda, a former reporter for the Desert Dispatch.

Mohammed is survived by his wife and their seven children: Jordan, 21, Sannia, 20, Asmaa, 18, Ahmad, 15, Abraham, 11, Addie, 7, and Zain, 3.

Mohammed moved from Jordan to the United States 31 years ago.

Anyone with information can contact the Barstow Sheriff’s Department at (760) 256-4838 or report information anonymously at the We Tip hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com