A Massachusetts man was charged with threatening to burn down Boston’s largest mosque and with making other threats online against Muslims. He was arrested on Tuesday.

federal prosecutors informed that, Patrick Keogan, a 44 years old resident of Winchester, was charged in making a threat over the internet and being a convicted felon in possession of ammunition illegally, .

Authorities said that the day after Islamic State gunmen killed 130 people in Paris, in November, Keogan posted an image portraying a mosque in flames on the face book page of Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center with with the message, “Burn your local mosque.”

The prosecutors informed that Keogan in his statement included, “Hello scumbags” along with a smiley face emoji in his post.

According to court documents Keogan posted the same image on the facebook page of Islamic Society of Northeastern University.

Prosecutors said that leaders of the Islamic Center opted to report the threat because it followed closely on the Paris attacks, “although it is not uncommon for the ISBCC to receive hateful and anti-Muslim messages”.

When FBI officials interviewed Keogan over the phone before his arrest, he said that he was “sorry and that he needs to smarten up as he is too old to act this way”. Keogan also stated that he had not intended to harm anyone.

Yusufi Vali, the executive director of the Islamic Society, thanked the FBI and the prosecutors for pursuing the case. Vali said, “This sends a really clear message to the Boston, Massachusetts, community and really the whole world that Boston embraces its Muslims,”

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By Prakriti Neogi