Members of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, the mosque where the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen attended, said Tuesday that its members are starting a blood drive for the victims of the shooting.
Bedar Bakht, who has attended the mosque on and off for about 10 years, said the blood drive would be sometime this week. “I’ll be the first in line,” he said.
Fewer members of the Fort Pierce mosque are showing up to pray lately after the Orlando shooting, Bakht said. In Fort Pierce, the mosque’s imam was concerned about safety and requested surveillance from police, who patrol every two hours, Bakht said.
“We’re all scared because people are cursing us out, giving me the finger,” he said.
Bakht volunteered to cook the food in the month of Ramadan, and on Tuesday was preparing lamb for around 100 members.
Bakht said that about two months ago he moved back to Fort Pierce from Maryland, where he said the Muslim community appears to be more active. In Fort Pierce, it’s quieter. There are about 200 to 300 Muslim families in Fort Pierce, and half of them go to the Fort Pierce mosque, he said.
Bakht remembers seeing Mateen praying this past Friday, two days before the shooting. After a couple of hours of prayer, Mateen left. He went to pray there three or four times a week, Bakht said.
Mateen was quiet, and Bakht never had a conversation with him.
“Maybe if he talked, we would have sensed something,” he said.
Bakht said his wife saw Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman, on the women’s side of the mosque.
Sometimes Mateen would show up with his father, and sometimes he would appear with his son.
“He wouldn’t make any eye contact,” Bakht said. “He would listen very respectfully. He would finish his prayers.”
He recalls one day when Mateen waved at him as he left the mosque a couple days before the shooting. “That picture is right on my mind, like a nightmare,” he said.
brerickson@SunSentinel.com, or Twitter @brianarerick
