Tahnee Gonzales and Elizabeth Dauenhauer, two American women from Arizona, are admittedly not fans of Muslims. In an attempt to fight back against ‘Muslim infiltrators’, they attempted to ‘expose a mosque’ with three children, all while broadcasting live on Facebook.
Discover our latest podcast
‘Destroying America’
Throughout the video, the women can be heard narrating their plot to storm the mosque. The language used throughout is laden with racism and hateful comments. The children are also heard to participate in the dialogue, with the women openly encouraging and cheering them on.
When the group arrive at the mosque, they can be seen tearing up flyers posted on the bulletin board. Upon leaving, one child steals materials from the hallway, which the women openly celebrate. To cap it all off, the children are then seen climbing atop the mosque’s funeral van.
A hate crime
The video, which has since been deleted from Gonzales’ page, has been reuploaded and subsequently shared over 1,000 times and viewed over 60,000 times. Both of the women have since deactivated their Facebook pages. The video has been used to convict the two women on burglary charges, with possible other hate crime charges coming in the future.
For others, the real crime isn’t the destruction and theft of their goods, but rather the lessons they are imparting on their children. ‘What really affected me the most is seeing those young children getting real-life lessons in hate, that was the thing that made me really, really upset with those people,’ said Ahmad Al-Akoum, operations director and acting imam of the Tempe centre. ‘Those innocent 5-, 6-year-old children are now really learning hate from their parents. It’s really disheartening.’
