A Seminole man charged with threatening to firebomb mosques in Pinellas County has accepted a plea agreement. This was after he was caught threatening to firebomb mosques in Pinellas County.
According to Associated Press (via ABC News), Martin Alan Schnitzler has agreed to plead to one count of obstructing people in the free exercise of religious beliefs. The crime carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, but it is likely that he will get a more lenient sentence as a result of the plea agreement filed late January 25 in the U.S. District Court of Tampa. A hearing on the charges is scheduled for Feb. 8.
According to The Tampa Tribune, Schnitzler signed the agreement wherein he admitted that shortly after the November Paris attacks, he made calls to the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg and the Islamic Society of Pinellas County threatening to get a militia, bomb the mosques and shoot whoever is there. Hatem Jaber who is part of the administration at the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg said that Schitzler should be prosecuted to the more serious crime of threatening to commit a terrorist act but is being given special handling because he is white.
Schitzler told an FBI agent that what he did was "stupid and wrong". Authorities searched his apartment but no weapons or explosives were found and, thus, concluded that he was not an actual threat.
Mother Jones, a non-profit news outlet, has noted a disturbing rise of harassments, beating and even death threats against Muslims in the United States. Sikhs who wear turbans or Indian women who wore scarves have been mistaken for Muslims and therefore have also been targeted. Threats and attacks against Muslims are also on the rise in schools. Even before the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, 52 percent of Muslim students in California reported being the target of verbal abuse and insults, according to a 2014 survey conducted by the Council on American Islamic Relations. A more disturbing development, according to the Council, are reports of anti-Muslim incidents emanating from teachers and school administrators.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric by local and national politicians has contributed to the spike in anti-Muslim harassment and violence. After the Paris attacks, more than two dozen Republican governors have said that they do not want Syrian refugees in their states. Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz ramped up their anti-Muslim rhetoric after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks.
