CENTREVILLE, Ala. Feb 3, 2006 — A series of fires damaged six rural Alabama churches overnight, and investigators Friday were trying to determine whether arson was involved.
Most of the churches were Baptist, located near major highways, and all but one were in Bibb County, about 25 miles south of Birmingham.
In 1996, race was a factor in a series of arsons that damaged rural black churches in Alabama and elsewhere. But Ingram said the fires late Thursday and early Friday destroyed both the churches of predominantly black congregations and predominantly white congregations.
The Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield, Rehobeth Baptist Church in Randolph and Pleasant Sabine near Centreville all burned to the ground, said Bibb County Chief Sheriff's Deputy Kenneth Weems.
The other two churches, Old Union Baptist in Brierfield and Antioch Baptist in Antioch, were damaged.
Wild speculation here: Is it just coincidence that these churches were set on fire on the International Day of Muslim Seething? |