Rights Group Urges Investigation as 'Vile' Message Threatens Muslim Educator, Family

IQNA – A civil rights group has urged for investigation after a Muslim educator in Maine received a racist email that threatened him and his family, prompting him to resign from his position as a diversity official at a school district and consider leaving the state.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called on Wednesday for state and federal authorities to investigate the email as a possible hate crime.

The educator, Mohammed Albehadli, was the coordinator of diversity, equity and inclusion for the South Portland School Department. He said he received the email last month from an anonymous sender.

“It was the most vile email message I have seen in my 35 years in education,” Tim Matheney, the superintendent of the school district, said in a statement announcing Mr. Albehadli’s resignation.

He said Albehadli and his family “developed concerns about their safety and reconsidered their decision to live in the area.”

Matheney praised Albehadli as an “important advocate” for the district and said his departure was a “significant loss.”

Robert McCaw, the government affairs director of CAIR, condemned the email and urged law enforcement to take action.

“Growing attacks on American Muslims and other communities in our diverse society must be repudiated,” he said in a news release. “We also call on local law enforcement authorities to provide Mr. Albehadli and his family the protection that they deserve.”

Albehadli, who worked for the school district for about a year, told The Portland Press Herald that he and his family might leave Maine because of the distress caused by the email.

CAIR has recently reported a “staggering” increase in complaints of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias.

Source: Agencies