Minnesota Mosque Bomber Gets 53-Year Sentence
Emily Claire Hari, who was charged, tried and convicted under the name Michael Hari and recently said she is transgender, faced a mandatory minimum of 30 years for the attack on Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Defense attorneys asked for the minimum, but prosecutors sought life, saying Hari hasn't taken responsibility for the attack.
No one was hurt in the bombing, but more than a dozen members of the mosque community gave victim impact statements Monday about the trauma it left behind. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said evidence clearly showed Hari's intent was to "scare, intimidate and terrorize individuals of Muslim faith."
"Diversity is the strength of this country," Frank said. "Anyone who doesn't understand that doesn't understand the constitutional promise of this country that brings a lot of people here."
"Anything less than 636 months would (be) disrespect to the law," the judge added, AP reported.
Hari made a brief statement before she was sentenced, saying, "For how blessed my first 47 years of life were, I can't complain about what the last three have looked like ... considering my blessed and fortunate and happy life, I can't ask the judge for anything further."
She also said the victims who testified during Monday's hearing have been through a "traumatic ordeal" and she wished them "God's richest blessings in Christ Jesus."
Frank said he was prepared to recommend Hari go to a women's prison, but said the Bureau of Prisons would decide.
Hari was convicted in December on five counts, including damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs.
Members of the mosque asked the judge on Monday to impose a life sentence, describing their shock and terror at the attack. Some were afraid to pray there afterward and have not returned. Mothers were scared to bring their kids to the mosque, which also serves as a charter school and community center.
"I felt really scared because I was going to start school in the same building soon and we lived like six blocks away from the mosque," said Idris Yusuf, who was 9 when the bombing happened. "I was scared because if these people could do this to our mosque, what's stopping them from coming to Muslim people's homes too?"
Afterward, community members said they saw 53 years as justice for an attack that has rattled worshippers for more than four years.
"We were looking for life (in prison), but this is something we can settle for today," said Khalid Omar, a community organizer and Dar Al Farooq worshipper.
Several men were gathered at Dar al-Farooq for early morning prayers on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of an imam's office. A seven-month investigation led authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago, where Hari and co-defendants Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris lived.
