The following unified statement is offered by Mayors Dr. Tim Mahoney, Bernie Dardis, Kory Peterson and Chad Olson:
The Cities of Fargo, West Fargo, Horace and Dilworth stand together with the City of Moorhead in unequivocally denouncing the criminal actions taken against the Moorhead-Fargo Islamic Community Center last night. Those criminal actions are completely contradictory to the values of tolerance, respect and acceptance we embrace in all of our communities. The vandalism was a heinous act of hate attacking the center during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
United, we echo Mayor Shelly Carlson’s message that hate -- of any kind, shape or form -- does not have a home in this metro. These despicable actions will not be tolerated in any of our cities. While the intent of these senseless crimes is to divide us, our metro has always rallied together in times of despair and we are asking you to do that again. We are, and always will be, stronger together.
We ask the residents of our metro community to keep the members of this mosque in their thoughts as they recover from the impact of hate-filled words and deeds that have desecrated their place of worship. We also encourage anyone with information to assist investigators in identifying those involved by calling the Red River Dispatch Center or submitting information to the Moorhead Police Department Tip Line.