Fred Harteis News Articles - Seattle protects temples, mosques after 'hate' shootings

Fred Harteis News Articles - Seattle police were protecting temples and mosques Saturday after a suspected hate killing prompted fears of the Middle East crisis spreading to the United States.

Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said a Muslim gunman killed a woman and wounded five others at a Jewish center in Seattle, Washington, Friday afternoon, and police were protecting mosques as well as synagogues out of fears of retaliation.

A U.S. citizen, Naveed Afzal Haq, has been arrested and booked on a charge of murder and five charges of attempted murder. (Watch armed police take aim as panicked women run -- 1:44)

The 31-year-old Muslim of Pakistani descent was angry at Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, officials said.

In a written statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Friday condemned the attack.

"The American Muslim and Jewish communities must do whatever is within their power to prevent the current conflict in the Middle East from being transplanted to this country," the Washington-based civil rights and advocacy group said.

Robert Jacobs, Pacific Northwest Regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, told CNN the group has been warning Jewish institutions to be wary and have adequate security because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

If they cannot, he said, it would be better for Jews "not to congregate in one location that might be an obvious site."

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels described Friday's shooting as "a crime of hate." "There's no place for that in the city of Seattle," he said.

"This was a purposeful hateful act, as far as we know, by an individual acting alone."

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http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/29/seattle.shooting/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Source: Cnn.com

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