Russell Thomas Langford was arrested and charged with stalking, death threats and brandishing a weapon
A major in the US army reserve has been arrested after allegedly threatening to kill Muslims and throwing two open packs of bacon at the door of a mosque during Ramadan.
Russell Thomas Langford, a major in the US army reserve, was accused of approaching a Muslim chaplain, showing him a gun and threatening to blow up the Masjid Al Madina mosque in Raeford, North Carolina.
Later that evening, he allegedly attempted to run over a group of people going into the mosque for evening prayer.
Mr Langford was taken into custody and charged with ethnic intimidation, assault with a deadly weapon, going armed to terror the public, communicating threats, stalking and disorderly conduct, according to a statement from the Hoke County Sheriff.
Several firearms, ammunition and "additional weapons" were discovered in his Chevrolet Tahoe.
He is being held in custody on bail for $60,000.
The two packs of bacon were reportedly intended as an insult as Muslims believe that pork is a forbidden food.
As reported by ABC News, parishioners are calling for the FBI to investigate what they say is a hate crime.
"This is very sad," said a mosque official. "We don't espouse that. We want to live in harmony. But this gentleman definitely has some issues and we hope that this is an isolated case."
The national communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper, said: "We call on state law enforcement authorities and the FBI to investigate this incident as a possible hate crime. We also ask local police to step up patrols in the area of this and other North Carolina mosques, particularly during the nightly activities associated with the ongoing fast of Ramadan."
This week a Muslim activist, Omair Siddiqi, said a pickup truck driver threatened to kill him and drive him off the road in Dallas.
"I'm gonna [expletive] kill you," the driver, whose truck had bumper stickers with extremist messages on them, allegedly yelled.
The CAIR chapter in Dallas gets three to five reports of potential hate crimes each week.
A group of men in Texas have also been practising to shoot Muslims, dipping the bullets in pig’s blood, in case of an "uprising".
In South Carolina, 42-year-old William Tore Tint was sentenced for lying to the FBI as they investigated him for plotting to kill residents of the Muslim community of Islamberg, Delaware, with the help of 10 other people.
The former marine was sentenced to three years probation.
