Chicago-area Islamic school targeted with homemade explosive

A homemade bomb was thrown at an Islamic school in a suburb of Chicago on Sunday night, according to the Chicago Tribune.

About 50 worshipers in Lombard, including a few children, heard a loud bang during a Ramadan prayer service and discovered that a plastic bottle filled with household chemicals had been thrown at the window of the school. No one was injured by the bottle bomb.

Lombard police are looking for potential suspects.

“Anyone who knows anyone involved or has heard anyone talking about it should call us,” Pat Rollins, deputy Lombard police chief, said. “We’re going to need the public’s assistance unless someone steps forward.”

It was the second incident targeting an Illinois Muslim organization over the past few days.

On Friday night, a man shot at a Muslim Education Center in Morton Grove with a high-velocity air rifle, narrowly missing a security guard. David Conrad was arrested on Saturday and charged with three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, a class X felony. He also faces one count of criminal damage to property, a class 4 felony.

"These and other incidents of anti-Muslim bigotry are occurring in an atmosphere of hate resulting from inflammatory statements by elected officials nationwide," said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab. The organization suggested some of the blame lies with Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who recent warned that radical Islam was “a real threat.”

“One thing I’m sure of is that there are people in this country – there is a radical strain of Islam in this country – it’s not just over there – trying to kill Americans every week,” Walsh said during a town hall meeting. “It is a real threat, and it is a threat that is much more at home now than it was after 9/11.”

“It’s here. It’s in Elk Grove. It’s in Addison. It’s in Elgin. It’s here,” he remarked, adding that the next 9/11 attack was “not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.”

In response to CAIR's criticism, Walsh said the Muslim advocacy group was tied to "Hamas and other terrorist organizations."

[Muslim man praying via Shutterstock]