It’s a fact that devout Muslims use outside prayer to intimidate their own co-religionists as well as the non-Muslim community. That said, regardless of the determining factors surrounding the photo being taken and happen chance run-in with these men, the fact remains, they are Islam 101’ers, i.e. supporters of sharia law.
Photo of Muslim men praying on Florida beach provokes tide of bigoted comments from residents fearful they are ‘claiming Wakulla County for Allah’
Backlash: Residents of Wakulla County, Florida, compared followers of Islam to the mentally ill and convicted criminals after this image of locals praying on Mashes Sands Beach was posted on Facebook
- Image showing group in prayer in Wakulla County sparked war of words
- Locals reacted with shock and some suggested ‘reminder’ of the Crusades
- Followers of Islam were compared to convicted criminals and mentally ill gun owners at local government meeting
A rural community in the Florida panhandle has exploded in outrage after a local official posted an image of Muslim men praying on a beach.
The picture – showing around ten men bowed in prayer – sparked a tirade of bigoted comments on Facebook and accusations that the men were ‘claiming Wakulla County for Allah’.
Ralph Thomas, a county commissioner, posted the image after stumbling upon the group at Mashes Sands Beach on the Gulf of Mexico.
The politician, a Republican, uploaded after spotting the group last week while walking at the beach.
He captioned the image: ‘Walked up on this at Mashes Sands this evening! First time seeing this in Wakulla County.’
But the image prompted a war of words on social media, that later spilled over into a local government meeting where Muslims were compared to mentally-ill gun owners and convicted criminals.
Underneath Mr Thomas’s post, xenophobic locals described themselves as ‘speechless’ and said the image was ‘scary’.
Others predicted ‘holy war’ and asserted that ‘their religion dictates that they kill Christians’. One wrote: ‘That must be where the poop in the water is coming from.’
