The name “Jesus” was spray painted on a fence of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque at 13221 Prairie Ave., the Hawthorne Police Department said. An apparent hand grenade was found in the driveway.
Advertisement
Although leaders of various faiths have called for tolerance -there was an interfaith gathering in Hawthorne on Saturday – leaders in American Muslim communities say a rise in hate crimes and bias incidents began after November 13, when gunmen belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) opened fire in Paris, killing 130 people.
The vandalism in Hawthorne came two days after a person was arrested in nearby Riverside County and charged with arson, hate crime and burglary after the police said he set fire to a mosque, the Islamic Society of Coachella Valley. The object was determined to be a replica of a hand grenade. A short time later, the words “Jesus is the way” were found spray-painted on the Islamic Center of Hawthorne.
“A few of our members went to early morning prayer at about 5 a.m. and they found graffiti on the outside wall and “Jesus” was written on the fence”, Zahid Mian, a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque, told the San Bernardino Sun. In Philadelphia, police and the FBI were investigating an incident in which vandals last Sunday threw a severed pig’s head from a moving pickup truck outside the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society mosque. “The FBI is committed to ensure law-abiding citizens are protected and to deter those who would threaten them”. The number of reports spiked further after a Muslim couple, who reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIL, staged the San Bernardino shooting.
Advertisement
“The Department will continue to closely support our faith-based partners and work to assure the safety of its members”, Hawthorne police said.
