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<\/p>\nUnited States Attorney Andrew M. Luger today announced the sentencing of\u00a0DANIEL GEORGE FISHER, 57, to 12 months in prison for threatening to blow up the Tawfiq Islamic Center in Minneapolis. FISHER pleaded guilty on November 30, 2016, before U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright in Saint Paul, Minn.<\/p>\n
“My Office takes very seriously any threat of violence against an individual or their place of worship based on race, religion or cultural practices,\u201d said United States Attorney Andrew Luger. “We will continue to work closely with the FBI to prosecute these types of crimes, which threaten religious freedoms and violate fundamental civil rights.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe free exercise of one\u2019s religious beliefs is a fundamental tenet of our Democracy,\u201d said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler. \u201cThis sentence sends a message that anyone who threatens others with violence because of religious intolerance will face significant consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The sentence handed down today committing the defendant to federal prison reflects the severity of his appalling hate crime,” said Special Agent in Charge Richard T. Thornton of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division. “The FBI will continue to prioritize, investigate, and bring to justice those who commit federal hate crimes and other civil rights violations.”<\/p>\n
According to the defendant\u2019s guilty plea and documents filed in court, on September 30, 2015, the Tawfiq Islamic Center received an anonymous handwritten letter, which threatened to \u201cblow up your building with all you immigrants in it.\u201d The letter also included profanities, racial and ethnic slurs, and other derogatory commentary about the religious and cultural practices of the members of the Tawfiq Islamic Center.<\/p>\n
According to the defendant\u2019s guilty plea and documents filed in court, FBI Special Agents interviewed FISHER on June 14, 2016. FISHER reported that he was angry that the Tawfiq Islamic Center selected Minnehaha Avenue for its new location and he wanted the Center to build somewhere else. FISHER further reported that he had become \u201cincreasingly angry with Muslims since 9\/11.\u201d FISHER confessed to writing the letter and mailing it to Tawfiq Islamic Center\u00a0with the intent to threaten and scare members of the Tawfiq Islamic Center.<\/p>\n
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI.<\/p>\n
Assistant United States Attorney Angela Munoz-Kaphing and Trial Attorney Olimpia Michel of the Civil Rights Division\u2019s Criminal Section prosecuted the case.<\/p>\n
Defendant Information:<\/p>\n
DANIEL GEORGE FISHER, 57<\/p>\n
No known address<\/p>\n
Convicted:<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Obstruction of Persons in the Free Exercise of Religious Beliefs, 1 count<\/p>\n Sentenced:<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>12 months in prison<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Supervised release term of three years<\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Six months of community confinement<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger today announced the sentencing of\u00a0DANIEL GEORGE FISHER, 57, to 12 months in prison for threatening to blow up the Tawfiq Islamic Center in Minneapolis. FISHER pleaded guilty on November 30, 2016, before U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright in Saint Paul, Minn. “My Office takes very seriously any threat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18786"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18788,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18786\/revisions\/18788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}