The San Diego mosque that was targeted in a horrific mass shooting Monday made headlines for being “best known as the home to two 9/11 hijackers,” while its current imam has justified the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel.
Three people, including a security guard, were killed when a pair of gunmen opened fire on the Islamic Center of San Diego Monday. The suspected shooters were later found dead by suicide in a BMW.
The motive for the shooting was not immediately known. San Diego police said “the threat has been neutralized.”
Previously, the Islamic Center of San Diego made headlines for its connection to Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.
Both hijackers reportedly prayed at the mosque and found an apartment nearby through advertisements at the mosque while taking flight lessons in the city.
More recently, Imam Taha Hassane has come under fire for his comments on the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
“This did not start last week or on October 7. This is the result of brutal Zionist occupation and genocide,” Hassane said in a video posted to social media days after the savage Hamas attack.
“Resistance is justified when people are under occupation and don’t let them change that narrative.”
Hassane’s wife and daughter have also been under fire for inflammatory rhetoric.
Selma Hassane has “promoted incitement, spread hatred of Israel, engaged in anti-Israel activism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement,” according to watchdog group, Canary Mission.
His wife, Lallia Allali, allegedly posted graphic images of a “Jewish star murdering babies with ‘the devil is killing’” scrawl in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, according to watchdog group StopAntisemitism.
The group accused Allali of leading the Palestinian Youth Movement, “an entity tied to the anti Israel protests occurring all over the U.S. these past few weeks.”
Neighbors told The Post that there was tension between the mosque and the local community — which includes a nearby Hebrew language charter school.
The relationship between the school and mosque “grew uncomfortable,” said the mom, adding that Imam Hassane transformed from “very moderate and friendly.”
One parent said “problems” have sprung up in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, when the mosque called the police claiming vandalism when the K-8 school hung hostage posters across the street.
“Hassane was supposed to bridge all the communities, but quickly became a hostile figure,” journalist and local mom Stella Escobedo said.