Militia leader sentenced to 53 years in Bloomington mosque bombing

UPDATE: Emily Claire Hari, who was previously known as Michael Hari and recently said she is transgender, has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for the 2017 bombing of a Bloomington mosque.

Hari was convicted in December on five counts, including damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs. She did not testify at trial.

Before the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank called the attack on Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center an "act of domestic terrorism a highly sophisticated plot."

Mohamed Omar, executive director at Dar al-Farooq, and others gave victim impact statements on Monday that included asking the judge to impose a life sentence.

"Every time I want to pray or go to the mosque, [the memories of that day] are a dark cloud… I feel terrorized… this attacker came to damage and destroy our sense of security," Omar said in court. "It damaged me and my community," he added.

"I felt really scared because I was going to start school in the same building soon and we lived like six blocks away from the mosque," said Idris Yusuf, who was 9 years old when the bombing happened. "I was scared because if these people could do this to our mosque, what’s stopping them from coming to Muslim people’s homes too."

Hari said the victims who testified during Monday’s hearing have been through a "traumatic ordeal" and she wished them "God’s richest blessings in Christ Jesus."

After the sentencing, acting U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk said, "Hari’s actions caused an entire faith community to live in fear… We heard from 21 community members in court today… they exemplify courage and strength."

Folk, “It is my hope that today’s sentence can contribute to the ongoing healing process…”

— Callan Gray (@CallanGrayNews) September 13, 2021

Co-defendants Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris each pleaded guilty to five counts and testified against Hari. They are still awaiting sentencing.

“The only way we can ensure that our houses of worship and our communities are safe from these types of hate is if we come together and stand for justice not because you know me, not because you are relating to me, not because you share an identity with me, but you stand for what is right,” said Abdulahi Farah, a Dar Al-Farooq board member. “Today was a long day but we come out of here with a lot of hope to move forward to keep building our community and to keep being resilient.”

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The leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group who authorities say masterminded the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque is in a federal court on Monday, awaiting sentencing for several civil rights and hate crimes in an attack that terrified a community.

Emily Claire Hari, who was previously known as Michael Hari and recently said she is transgender, faces a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison for the attack on Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Defense attorneys are asking for the minimum, but prosecutors are seeking a life sentence, saying Hari hasn’t taken responsibility for the attack.

"This bomb – the Defendant’s bomb – was an act of terror intended to destroy the heart of a community," prosecutors wrote in papers asking for a life sentence. While no one was physically hurt, prosecutors wrote, "the Defendant irrevocably destroyed the sense of safety and peace that a house of worship is supposed to provide."

Hari was convicted in December on five counts, including damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs. She did not testify at trial and it was unknown if she would make a statement at sentencing.

Mohamed Omar, executive director at Dar al-Farooq, and others gave victim impact statements on Monday that included asking the judge to impose a life sentence. They described their shock and terror at the attack. Many members were afraid to pray there and some never returned. Mothers were scared to bring their kids to the mosque, which also serves as a charter school and community center.

"I felt really scared because I was going to start school in the same building soon and we lived like six blocks away from the mosque," said Idris Yusuf, who was 9 years old when the bombing happened. "I was scared because if these people could do this to our mosque, what’s stopping them from coming to Muslim people’s homes too."

Several men were gathered at Dar al-Farooq for early morning prayers on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of an imam’s office. A seven-month investigation led authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago, where Hari and co-defendants Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris lived.

Authorities say Hari, 50, led a group called the White Rabbits that included McWhorter, Morris and others and that Hari came up with the plan to attack the mosque. Prosecutors said at trial that she was motivated by hatred for Muslims, citing excerpts from Hari’s manifesto known as The White Rabbit Handbook.

McWhorter and Morris, who portrayed Hari as a father figure, each pleaded guilty to five counts and testified against her. They are awaiting sentencing.

It wasn’t initially clear how the White Rabbits became aware of Dar al-Farooq, but the mosque was in headlines in the years before the attack: Some young people from Minnesota who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State group had worshipped there. Mosque leaders were never accused of any wrongdoing. Hari’s attorneys wrote in court filings that she was a victim of online misinformation about the mosque.

Assistant federal defender Shannon Elkins also said gender dysphoria fueled Hari’s "inner conflict," saying she wanted to transition but knew she would be ostracized, so she formed a "rag-tag group of freedom fighters or militia men" and "secretly looked up ‘sex change,’ ‘transgender surgery,’ and ‘post-op transgender’ on the internet."

Prosecutors said gender dysphoria is not an excuse and said using it "to deflect guilt is offensive."

In their request for a life sentence, prosecutors asked for several sentencing enhancements, arguing the bombing was a hate crime led by Hari. They also say Hari committed obstruction when she tried to escape from custody during her transfer from Illinois to Minnesota for trial in February 2019. Hari denies trying to flee.

Hari, a former sheriff’s deputy and self-described entrepreneur and watermelon farmer, has written self-published books, including essays on religion, and has floated ideas for a border wall with Mexico. She gained attention on the "Dr. Phil" talk show after she fled to the South American nation of Belize in the early 2000s during a custody dispute. She was convicted of child abduction and sentenced to probation.

Before her 2018 arrest in the mosque bombing, she used the screen name "Illinois Patriot" to post more than a dozen videos to YouTube, most of them anti-government monologues. In one video just days before her arrest, Hari said FBI and local law enforcement were terrorizing Clarence and she asked "freedom-loving people everywhere to come and help us."

Hari, McWhorter and Morris were also charged in a failed November 2017 attack on an abortion clinic in Champaign, Illinois. Plea agreements for McWhorter and Morris say the men participated in an armed home invasion in Indiana, and the armed robberies or attempted armed robberies of two Walmart stores in Illinois.