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AP
FORT PIERCE
The MAN accused of setting fire to the mosque sometimes attended by Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen was ordered held without bail Thursday after a judge called him a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Joseph Michael Schreiber looked down during most of the brief hearing before St Lucie County Judge Philip Yacucci. He told Yaccuci he couldn't afford a private attorney and was appointed a public defender. He also acknowledged two previous stints in prison.
Schreiber, 32, was arrested without incident Wednesday afternoon and charged with second-degree arson with a hate crime enhancement, a crime that carries a maximum 30-year sentence. The fire was set late Sunday on the 15th anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. The blaze also coincided with the Muslim holiday Eid al Adha. No one was injured in the fire, which burned a 10-by-10-foot hole in the roof at the back of the mosque's main building and blackened its eaves with soot.
Yacucci also noted that Schreiber had made anti-Islamic posts on social media. Last July, Schreiber posted on Facebook that 'All Islam is radical' and that all Muslims should be treated as terrorists and criminals.
Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Florida, said Schreiber 'obviously doesn't know about the efforts our community is engaged in with our cousins, the Jews, not only in Florida but throughout the nation.' Omar Saleh, an attorney for CAIR, described both Schreiber and Mateen as 'degenerates' and 'punks.'
"Just like on June 12, when I was stressing that Mateen's actions do not speak on behalf of Islam, I know that whatever religion Mr Schreiber is, his actions do not speak on behalf of his religion," Saleh said.
Mateen was killed by police after opening fire at the Pulse nightclub on June 12 in a rampage that left 49 victims dead and 53 wounded, making it the worst mass shooting in modern US history. Mateen professed allegiance to the Islamic State group. His father is among roughly 100 people who attend the mosque.
