A Tennessee man has been sentenced to nearly 20 years behind bars for seeking to recruit others to burn down a New York mosque, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
\nRobert Doggart, 65, of Signal Mountain was sentenced to 235 months for seeking to recruit others on the internet to burn down the Islamberg mosque.
\nIslamberg, a small hamlet in central New York, is home to a large Muslim community.
\nDoggart was convicted in February of soliciting a person to violate federal civil rights laws, and for arson solicitation.
\n\u201cPeople of all faiths have the fundamental right to worship freely, and this administration will not tolerate attempts to violate that right,\u201d Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “The defendant solicited people to commit acts of violence in an effort to terrorize a community simply because of its Islamic faith.”
\nDoggart ran for federal office in 2014, finishing with less than ten percent of the vote in the eastern Tennessee district.
\nIn a separate development, the Justice Department announced Gerald Wallace, 35, of Florida is being indicted by a grand jury on a hate crime charge for threatening to shoot congregants at a Miami Gardens, Florida mosque.
\n“The defendant is alleged to have left a profanity laden message against Islam, the prophet Mohammed, and the Koran, during which he threatened to go to the mosque, and stated, ‘I’m gonna shoot all y’all,'” the Justice Department said.
\nWallace is now charged with obstructing the free exercise of religion and sending threatening messages across state lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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