Alleged leader of mosque bombing could be threatening figure
CLARENCE, Ill. — A former sheriff’s deputy and purported ringleader in the bombing of a Minnesota mosque emerges in court documents as a sometimes-threatening figure with anti-government views who also wrote books and attracted others into his shadowy group.
Michael Hari, 47, allegedly intended for the attack to scare Muslims into leaving the U.S. He and two associates were charged Tuesday with travelling from rural Clarence, Illinois, about 120 miles south of Chicago, to carry out the Aug. 5 pipe-bomb assault on the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The explosion caused a damaging fire just as morning prayers were about to begin, but no one was hurt.
Even before his arrest, the self-described entrepreneur and watermelon farmer had a background that included working in law enforcement, floating ideas for a border wall with Mexico, fleeing with his daughters to Central America during a custody dispute and suing the federal government for allegedly cutting in on his food-safety business.