Suspect arrested in Mississippi synagogue arson

Alt-right violence doesn’t all come under the color of law:

Mississippi officials on Saturday arrested a suspect and charged them with arson in a fire that charred a prominent Jackson synagogue, the city’s only Jewish house of worship and the target of a Ku Klux Klan bombing decades ago when the congregation was pushing for racial integration.

The blaze at Beth Israel Congregation began around 3 a.m. Saturday, destroying Torah scrolls and burning significant parts of the building, before firefighters extinguished it, according to Jackson Fire Department Chief Charles Felton. The synagogue was closed at the time, and no one was injured in the fire. In a later news release, the fire department said the suspect sustained non-life-threatening burns and was arrested at the hospital.

Officials have not identified the suspect or disclosed a motive. Felton said authorities are certain it was an act of arson because fire investigators found that the fire could not have been started “without human involvement.”

The suspect is facing an arson charge in Mississippi, and the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which are also probing the incident, are considering opening a federal case, Felton told The Washington Post.

Given the damage to the synagogue, the congregation will not be able to hold services there “for an extended time period,” Felton said.

I hope this doesn’t get completely lost in admittedly deranged news cycle — this kind of antisemitic violence is an important part of the story.