Ming the Merciless, who kindly alerted me to this article, notes that CAIR’s Ibrahim “Frustrated” Hooper “says he was assured in the past by Abunar that he had nothing to do with the fire. Hmmm….Why was that a topic between Hooper and Abunar? Did Hooper suspect that the guy was an arsonist all along? How did the topic of the so-called victim’s own guilt come up in their conversations? There may be an explanation, but why was Hooper and CAIR hassling the police and demanding hate crime investigations in a case like this?” I think we have just found more questions that Poor Ibrahim won’t answer. From the New York Times, with thanks to Ming:
McALLEN, Tex., Sept. 29 – The owner of a Middle Eastern meat market who had said he was the victim of a hate crime in this border town was arrested and arraigned Tuesday on a felony arson charge that he set fire to his own business.
The man, Amjad Abunar, had complained that “Go Home” was twice spray-painted on a door of his Al Madinah Market before a fire on Aug. 6 that gutted the small delicatessen. Only last week, the graffiti and fire were cited as evidence by a Washington advocacy group that hate crimes against Muslims were on the rise in Texas.
Bond for Mr. Abunar was set at $150,000, and he remained in jail on Wednesday.
Representatives of the advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which had complained that McAllen officials were not investigating the fire as a possible hate crime, said they were stunned Wednesday to learn of Mr. Abunar’s arrest.
Ibrahim Hooper, a council official in Washington, said Mr. Abunar had assured him he had nothing to do with setting the fire.