A Texas man has been sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison for attempting to firebomb the Islamic Center of El Paso.

Last September, Antonio Flores, 58, from the Lower Valley area of El Paso, placed a jar filled with gasoline and a lit fuse near a gas meter on the center’s property and threw a similar device into the center’s back yard where children were playing.  Some gasoline splashed on a boy’s pants, but the flame went out and no one was hurt.

In March, Flores pleaded guilty to attempting to damage religious property and using an explosive device in a felony.  According to court records, Flores told investigators that he was angry about the September 11 terrorist attacks and that he wanted to scare Muslims.

Since it opened in the mid-1980s, the Islamic Center has reported two threats: a bomb threat after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and a threatening e-mail last year.