PASTOR MICHAEL A. DAY, with First Lady Amber Day, Robert Day and Jennifer Benton. The Legacy International Worship Center on the North Side was the target of an alleged bomb attack that the FBI thwarted, June 19. (Photo by J.L. Martello)
by Rob Taylor Jr. and J.L. Martello, Courier Staff Writers
The Rev. Michael A. Day was assured by the FBI that he didn’t do anything wrong.
“All my tickets are paid,” Rev. Day told the FBI agent over the phone last Wednesday, June 19, as they shared a quick laugh.
But what Rev. Day heard next from the FBI agent was no laughing matter.
The FBI employee informed Rev. Day that the church he leads, the Legacy International Worship Center, on Wilson Avenue on the North Side, was the target of a planned bomb attack.
Thankfully, the FBI intercepted the suspect’s plans and arrested him hours earlier.
“I was overwhelmed,” Rev. Day told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, June 23. “But I immediately became grateful to be alive. My family was alive, my congregation was alive.”
Of course, hate is never promoted inside Legacy’s church walls. That’s why, one week later, it’s still puzzling how one person, who seemed like your normal person, your normal next-door neighbor, would have hate on his heart and mind, and allegedly want to cause so much harm to others inside a place of worship.
Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, recently graduated from Brashear High School and lived in nearby Northview Heights. The FBI said Alowemer allegedly pledged an oath of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group, then purchased bomb-making materials. However, Alowemer didn’t know he was purchasing those materials for an FBI undercover employee. Earlier this month, when Alowemer took a person to the church to scout the atmosphere around it, he didn’t know an FBI agent was in the car with him.
FBI agents had Alowemer under heavy surveillance since April. And just at the right time, the FBI arrested Alowemer and charged him with one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and two counts of distributing information about making bombs in relation to the possible attack.
Alowemer identified bombing a “Nigerian” church because, according to information provided by the FBI, “all of them are Mushrikeen (polytheist Christians),” and to take revenge for “our brothers in Nigeria.”
But a Nigerian congregation hadn’t been inside the Legacy church building for a few years. Today, African Americans are the primary ethnic group at the church, though other ethnicities attend and are welcomed.
Jennifer Benton, the marketing and communications manager for Legacy, told Pastor Day she couldn’t talk on the phone when he called moments after getting the news from the FBI. She was at work, her “day job.” Reverend Day texted her and told her to call him “as soon as you can.”
When she left work, she called Rev. Day and learned the news. “I was floored,” Benton told the Courier, June 23. “I just couldn’t even fathom who would want to attack our church.”
Alowemer is a Syrian refugee who had been in America for three years. He was living in Northview Heights as he allegedly planned his attack. Neighbors spoke of Alowemer as “to himself,” more on the quiet side, and showed no signs of having terrorist ties or beliefs.
“I think for him, I don’t know what would cause that level of hatred, to say I don’t care who’s there, I just want to bomb this place,” Benton said.
Alowemer appeared in federal court in Downtown Pittsburgh on June 21 and was ordered to remain detained by a federal judge. Charges levied against him could land him in prison for up to 40 years.
“As we know, the threat posed by terrorist organizations is real and they’re reaching across our borders to spread their ideologies of hate,” said U.S. Attorney Scott Brady at a news conference following Alowemer’s court appearance. “We want those who embrace those ideologies of hate to know that we will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will bring you to justice. The men and women of law enforcement stand on guard. They stand on guard to keep our community safe and to protect our freedoms.”
Come this October, it will be two years since Pastor Day welcomed his congregation into the space at 2131 Wilson Ave. where Legacy stands. The church with the small, family feel has 75-100 parishioners.
Thursday, June 20, one day after the FBI thwarted the planned attack, Legacy held its normal “Hour of Power” evening service. Parishioners, newcomers, and the media all met at the church—some shouted, some prayed, some embraced, some took photos, some asked for interviews.
The word “fear” didn’t seem to be in the air during the “Hour of Power.” It didn’t seem to be in the air during Legacy’s Sunday service, held June 23 with the media again present.
Pastor Day told the Courier neither he nor his congregation walks in fear. Upon learning from the FBI that Alowemer was only 21 years old and lived blocks away in Northview Heights, Rev. Day wished he would have been able to connect with Alowemer.
“Just to minister to him,” he said.
“I love young people, I love youth. Our church is diverse, we have many backgrounds. So it didn’t matter where he came from, I just wish we would have been able to connect with him, maybe change his heart or change his mind.”
Reverend Day, now with a few days to process things, told the Courier following his June 23 service that all things considered, “I feel good. God is with me, so I don’t walk in fear, I never did. I am grateful to be alive, I am grateful that my family and ministry and community is still alive and well.”
Pastor Day, who grew up in Beltzhoover, began teaching Sunday School at age 16 and preached his first sermon at age 20. He and his wife, Amber, have a daughter, Elise. The Day family—hec, the entire Legacy church family—had never been so front-and-center before these circumstances occurred. From the KDKAs to the NBCs, from the CNNs to news websites around the world, Legacy church and its pastor, Rev. Day, have dominated the news.
What the media—and many viewers—may not have known was that in the face of terror, in the face of hate, in times of distress, Rev. Day and his congregation remain grounded in their faith. They never let hate win.
“Being that, I guess, because I’m from the hood, gunshots are every day, so to all of sudden be like, ‘oh, someone wanted to bomb a church,’ well, I’m from the hood where you hear gunshots every day,” Rev. Day told the Courier exclusively. “This very church used to be my grandfather’s and so, that door was replaced several times for getting shot at, especially in the early ‘90s…so fear, nah. I’m just grateful to be alive. My church knows we are not to walk in fear. We are to trust in God, believe that God has us, and he does.”
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
About Post Author
