Muslim group pleads for FBI help after family's home hit with firebomb

The Center for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued its second call for a federal investigation on Thursday into the "possible bias motive" of whoever threw a firebomb at a Florida Muslim family's home in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Nobody was hurt in the incident due to the unknown assailant's poor throw, but the family awoke to a loud thump on one of the home's external windows and a sudden eruption of flames on their front lawn. "It could have burned down our house," one of the shaken residents told local reporters. The fire was extinguished with a garden hose.

It was yet another in a series of seemingly escalating attacks on American Muslims and Muslim-associated facilities following a number of elected members of Congress calling for an investigation into whether Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood may somehow be secretly controlling the Obama administration.

"Any time the home of a family belonging to an ethnic or religious minority is attacked in this manner, it is necessary to investigate a possible bias motive," CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said in prepared text announcing the group's call for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to intervene.

All of these appear to be part of a strain of anti-Islamic hatred that's taken a much more public and violent turn in recent months, and seemingly escalating during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan. Hooper told Raw Story earlier this week that he believes the string of violent outbursts recently can be attributed to a well-financed "Islamophobia machine" that's begun to merge with the Republican Party.

“Whenever you have people with some measure of respect in society smearing Muslims and Islam, it’s going to have a negative impact in terms of these kinds of incidents,” he said. “[They should] act responsibly and tone down this anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Though some well known Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) have repudiated colleagues for their McCarthy-esque push for a Muslim witch-hunt investigation in Washington, many have defended it, including Mitt Romney's top foreign policy adviser.

This video was broadcast by Tampa, Florida ABC News affiliate ABC 13 on Wednesday, August 15, 2012.

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Photo: Shutterstock.com, all rights reserved.

With prior reporting by Stephen C. Webster.