Islam critic and evangelist author charged with arson
Thursday, May 01, 2008
By RUSS HENDERSON
Staff Re****ter
DAPHNE Anis Shorrosh, a Palestinian Arab and author of Christian
evangelist books critical of
Islam, was arrested early Wednesday morning and accused of attempting to
set fire to a plastic
recycling bin at the Loma Alta Towers where he lives.
The condo's residents were evacuated when smoke from the smoldering blue
plastic container set
off alarms at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. The large bin
contained tax records from
Shorrosh's evangelical association, police said.
The bin was only partially melted. But if the fire had intensified and
somehow spread to the
tower, residents could have been hurt or even killed, said Daphne Police
Lt. Jud Beedy. About
50 people were evacuated, he said.
"He endangered a lot of people," Beedy said.
Shorrosh was placed in police custody shortly after officers and
firefighters arrived at the
condo tower. A warrant had already been issued for Shorrosh's arrest, and
he was charged with
criminal mischief for alleged ly damaging the security system at Loma Alta
Towers on Saturday,
Beedy said.
Beedy said that, around the time the fire was set Tuesday evening,
security cameras downstairs
at the tower captured Shorrosh entering and exiting the room where the
garbage and recycling
containers are kept, Beedy said.
At about 8 a.m. Wednesday, Shorrosh was charged with first-degree
attempted arson, Beedy said.
He remained at the Baldwin County Corrections Center on Wednesday evening.
Bail had been set at
$25,000.
In recent years, Shorrosh has given talks at several local churches about
attacks on Christians
by militant Muslims. He is the author of 10 books including "Islam
Revealed" and "Islam: a
Threat or a Challenge." His Web site, www.islam-in-
focus.com, says Shorrosh was born in Nazareth, "hometown of Jesus Christ,"
and worked as an
evangelist in the Middle East in the early 1960s.
Questions posed in a news release about one of his books include: "Can
Muhammad be blamed, the
Quran (Koran) or both for the violence of Islam? Will devoted American
Muslim citizens sup****t
the Constitution or the Quran in the next few years of worldwide conflict
with Islamic terrorism?"
Shorrosh has claimed that in 1989 he escaped three attempts on his life by
Muslims in South Africa
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1209633407145440.xml&coll=3
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