Leaders call for further investigation of mosque fire

A fire at a basement entrance to a Minneapolis mosque on Monday evening has Muslim leaders in the Twin Cities on edge and calling for further investigation. That’s despite an investigation from the Minneapolis Fire Department Tuesday concluding that the fire was “accidental.”

The Minneapolis Fire Department said the fire was reported at 5:31 p.m. on Monday at the Alhikma Islamic Center on 32nd Street in south Minneapolis, which includes both a mosque and a child care facility. Firefighters extinguished a “rubbish fire” made up of clothes and trash near the basement entrance before it spread inside the building. The inside of the mosque was undamaged and there were no injuries.

Neither police nor firefighters interviewed anyone on the scene or asked to view surveillance footage of a perso