HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There is shock in Houston's Muslim community as emails and cartoons defiling their religion are found in emails from the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
Shocking and scary are some of the words being used to describe what we found in the email box of a top sheriff's department commander.
They are harmless jokes to some and racism to others. The sheriff's department prohibits inappropriate emails. Something that even top commanders seem to ignore. Of course we wouldn't have known that if the sheriff's office had gotten away with destroying them.
Contained in the emails:
It's a cartoon for 'Preparation M,' Islamic suppositories for prayer time relief.
There is a picture of a Muslim man's remote control for his wife with buttons to clean, feed camel and give me an AK-47.
"I don't mean to be politically incorrect, racist, or religion intolerant," one cartoon reads "I'm just tired of looking at
Arabs."
And look at this email:
"Perhaps we should be very suspicious of all MUSLIMS in our country; They obviously cannot be both "good Muslims and good Americans" SEE MORE
A quarter of a million Muslims live in Harris County.
"They are all good Americans," said Dr. Siddiqui. "Anyone implying anything else is totally wrong."
And when wildfires broke out in California last year, a sheriff's employee email to a top commander suggested fires would be the perfect terrorist attack. A top commander emailed another official, "we continue to under estimate these dumb foreigners."
His reply includes a reference to the, "number of foreigners who own gas stations."
"Actually it's pretty scary," said Zakaria.
Zakaria and his brother own a number of gas stations. During Hurricane Rita they opened to provide free gas to lawmen.
"My trust and confidence in the sheriff's department is very low now," he said.
"Do they not have better things to do with our taxpayer dollars," asked Ibarra. "Everyone should share that sentiment if they don't, they are just sitting ducks."
And the sheriff remains silent.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/13_undercover&id=6231196