LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Last week, the Arkansas Legislative Council approved a $500,000 grant for security enhancements to be made at organizations that are at high risk of a terrorist attack because of their ideologies or missions.
"There was a need that was identified there. To assist with this, we've had requests from different institutions of faith since October 7, specifically, asking for assistance. And this is an opportunity to provide that assistance," said Colonel Mike Hagar with the Arkansas Department of Public Safety.
The Israel-Hamas conflict first began on October 7 and Hagar explained that although the violence is happening in different parts of the world, they don't want a catalyst of events to happen locally.
"When you see the temperature rise in any type of threat assessment, you're looking at groups that are specifically targeted. Whether it be the Muslim community, the Jewish community, the Christian community, whatever the case may be. Right now that temperature, a lot of it is directed towards the Jewish community," Hagar described.
During the meeting, several council members posed the question of what exactly determines a terrorist attack.
"We use information from our federal partners that assess the threat level. We also get a situation report from the Arkansas State Fusion Center that monitors that closely. So the difficult thing with threats is, that it's hard to quantify it," Hagar said."It's hard to put a number. so you know, in the world of threat assessment, you'll rarely see any type of matrix, but there's, there's a quantitative value assigned to it. And the reason why is, a lot of what you're looking at is just kind of honestly the local temperature."
Nader Abou-diab, a community member of the Islamic Center of Little Rock explained how this grant came right on time after just weeks prior they had reached out to the mayor's office to discuss safety.
"I think it's fantastic. I think it's important to protect religious freedom all the way across. You know, religious institutions have limited resources, and this will help go a long way," Abou-diab said.
He also said that when it comes to safety, it should be a concern for all parties whether you are Muslims or non-Muslims.
"Any normal person would want, and a normal Muslim would want, any normal Christian or Jewish person or a person of any type would want is to feel safe and secure. Arkansas has been a great state. but it takes only one bad actor to leave a terrible impact on things and we hope not to fall victim," Abou-diab said.
The Arkansas Legislative Council did approve the $500,000 grant but many motions were passed to clarify the grant of who can apply or terms of who can receive it.
On Friday, they publicly announced in the meetings that the details would be sorted out sooner rather than later as they see this as an emergency to get the grant out there for members of the community to apply.
As far as the cost of how much each non-profit organization can receive is not yet determined.