MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota advocacy group has issued an apology for what it determined to be a “miscommunication.”
As Alpha News reported, gun-control advocacy group Protect Minnesota issued a statement on their Facebook page just days after the Dar Al Farooq bombing in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Though federal and local law enforcement are still investigating the case, Protect Minnesota’s statement suggested that local gun rights groups in the city had knowledge of the bomber and should cooperate with authorities.
“Violence based on fear is the root cause of this bombing incident,” the group Protect Minnesota wrote on August 10. “We hope that groups like Minnesota Gun Rights, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, and Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance can provide good information to the FBI to find and arrest the people responsible.”
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus called for a retraction, going so far as to send a letter to Protect Minnesota’s Executive Director Nancy Nord Bence.
“We demand an immediate public retraction and apology for your organization’s false and misleading public statements on this matter,” Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus Chair Bryan Strawser wrote. “Simply editing the post does not reverse your organization’s inappropriate comments or correct your poor judgement in the eyes of the public.”
Early Tuesday morning, Bence wrote on Facebook:
“On August 9, 2017, Protect Minnesota posted a message on our facebook [sic] page concerning the bombing of the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center that seemed to imply that gun rights groups knew of or had information related to that terroristic act. Although the post was edited later in the day to clarify its meaning, Protect Minnesota apologizes to Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, Minnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance, and Minnesota Gun Rights for originally including their names in the post. It was never our intention to suggest that they were involved in any way in the attack on the mosque.”
The group then took the opportunity to tie themselves to groups involved in the Charlottesville protests, “The appalling events in Charlottesville have shown how deep in the mire of hatred and bigotry some Americans have sunk. At Protect Minnesota, we are committed to treating everyone with civility and respect, including those with whom we fundamentally disagree. We regret if, by our miscommunication, we have fallen short of this ideal.”
Authorities have not given a timeline of when the investigation will be completed.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
