An anti-Muslim hate group planned an armed protest at an African-American mosque in Texas on Saturday — but it didn’t go as planned.
The group, the Bureau of American Islamic Relations, or BAIR, has made it a habit in the past to show up at mosques with firearms and intimidate worshipers. In November, armed protesters stalked Muslims in Irving. In December, they again stalked Muslims at the Islamic Association of North Texas.
The group that makes a show of carrying guns while they surround places of worship was met in-kind at a Nation of Islam mosque in South Dallas.
“This is an armed defense maneuver, making sure that our communities are safe and secure from any insurgents coming in,” Krystal Muhammad of the New Black Panther Party said. “We will not allow them to come to South Dallas with arms and intimidate our people,” Yafeuh Balogun, spokesman for the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, said last week. “We’re taking a defensive posture, but we’re not threatening anyone.”