An unattended backpack was found outside Temple Beth-El on Birmingham’s Southside Friday morning.

Birmingham, the FBI and the FBI’s Counterterrorism Task Force have cordoned off a large perimeter in the 2100 block of Highland Avenue as the investigation is ongoing.

“We don’t know if there’s anything in (the backpack) as far as explosive devices,’’ said Birmingham police spokesman Officer Truman Fitzgerald, “but what was observed from our team was enough to make them alarmed.”

The backpack was discovered about 8:30 a.m. Friday. The director of the Jewish Federation of Birmingham then notified Birmingham police, which directed its bomb technicians to the scene.

“They observed what they though were very suspicious items,’’ Fitzgerald said.

The FBI was simultaneously notified.

The book bag is being taken off-site for further examination.

“Sixty percent of all religious hate crimes in the U.S. are committed against the Jewish community,’’ Fitzgerald said. “Coupled with the national attention surrounding anti-Semetic remarks made by celebrities, you can’t discount that those remarks are getting national attention.”

On Thursday, the FBI in New Jersey said it had received credible information about a broad threat to synagogues in that state.

In recent, there has been national controversy surrounding anti-Semetic remarks made by Kanye West. Most recently, Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving was suspended after promoting an anti-Semetic documentary and he has since apologized for sharing the film with his followers.

“We’re not going to take this lightly,” Fitzgerald said.