Very early Saturday morning, a fire destroyed a partially-constructed Islamic center in Lake Travis (near Austin), Texas. No cause for the fire has been determined, and as the Austin American-Statesman reports:
[Islamic Center of Lake Travis board member Shakeel] Rashed emphasized that the group didn’t want to speculate on the fire’s cause until the investigation is complete. Neither the electrical system nor gas connections had been installed yet, he said, but “it could possibly be anything,” even someone looking for shelter who might have started a fire for warmth on a night that was Austin’s coldest in six years.
Perhaps Mr. Rashed is correct in his generous assessment that the cause of the fire could “possibly be anything.” However, even though I know it’s dangerous to make assumptions, I’m fearful of the motivations behind the fire in the nascent era of Trump.
No matter what the cause, however, the Islamic Center of Lake Travis will need money to rebuild. The center was just a few months from being finished, and now the center’s community will need to start from scratch.
Two charitable funds have been set up in case anyone has some extra money to help out:
- LaunchGood has a goal of raising $400,000, but is only just shy of $23,000 as of this diary’s publishing.
- GoFundMe has a goal of raising $15,000, and has raised almost $9K of that goal.