When I got to the intersection, however, I found nothing. The shopping center was there and I figured the mosque was maybe just some rented out office space but no luck. I went across the street to a gas station, fruitlessly scrolled through some phone books and asked the lady at the register if there was a mosque nearby. She said she didn't know but when I told her about the story she remembered that there had been detectives around the gas station so I figured I was in the right spot. While I was in the gas station a kid talking on his phone couldn't go more than 4 words without droppin' the f-bomb. "You're a f*in mile away going to the f*in batting cages and you won't f*in pick me up?!" This kid has no transportation, remember that for later. Another one was "I was just at f*in Christina's in the f*in trailer parks, she's such a b*." Trailer parks, eh? I'm starting to get a pretty good feel for this neighborhood.
Finally, I find the mosque. Sure, I knew the address all along but I didn't know I was supposed to be looking for a house.
There's no point in showing these pictures other than to relieve anyone of the imagery of some sort of grandiose elaborate mosque with half a minaret missing from this so called "acid bomb". Several sources have already quoted Officer Barnett and come to the conclusion that this 'bomb' would have only been dangerous to anyone in a 5 foot radius:
"Calling it an acid bomb is kind of misleading," Officer Barnett said. "It was a plastic bottle with pool cleaner that expands and pops and squirts the pool acid. It's kind of like the Menthos (mints) and Coca Cola thing you see (on YouTube) -- the pressure mounts and it pops. It's not like a stick of dynamite was placed there." ....
Not something anyone wants in their eyes or on their skin, but nothing anyone would really think of when they here the phrase 'acid bomb'. I could put a lemon in a pop can with some black cats inside and claim it's an 'acid bomb'. Owie, acid in my eye. And did the people who threw the bottle even know the imam and other man were standing outside? Reuters says the bottle "..burst some 20-25 feet away..." from the two men. Even at 1am this seems to be a horribly inaccurate thrower. But who knows?
Anyways, back to the real point.
Oh, here's a little gem everyone seems to be in the dark about. From the Reuters article, down at the bottom of page 1:
"[sergeant Jim] Toomey said that the attack was one of six similar incidents involving the soda-bottle device in the Glendale area over a three-day period, but the other five did not appear to have a religious link."
Now let's take a look at the neighborhood of the mosque!
Are you kidding me?! Is this Christina's trailer park?! This and the above quote are the clincher for me. There's little to no doubt in my mind that whoever threw that bottle had no idea who they were throwing it at. I'm guessing they live in this neighborhood or somewhere nearby (this is the first neighborhood where I've ever actually seen a house labeled as 'Abandoned', in America, at least). Sure, they probably knew that it was a religious building and maybe they even knew it was a Muslim religious building. But it'd be hard to convince me that they knew this was the mosque of the Flying Imam.
However, this neighborhood is only representative of the immediate area around the mosque. A half mile or so down the road was a new subdivision with the typical new two story stucco homes. What I'm implying by saying that is that it's not impossible that someone with more than a trailer park education who knew how to make the 'acid bomb' (as simple as that may be) and also knew the significance of the imam could have done this with clear intent. If that's the case I'm 100% behind any punishment that sort of immaturity and intolerance deserves.
I'm just not convinced that that's what happened.
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