Crime & Safety

FBI Asked to Investigate Possible Islamic Center Hate Crime

The Council for American-Islamic Relations asks Baltimore FBI office to investigate possible hate crime in Riverview; police to step up patrols in area.

The Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Thursday asked the Baltimore office of the FBI to investigate a recent act of vandalism at an Islamic community center in Riverview, the organization announced .

A call requesting comment from the FBI's Baltimore office has not yet been returned.

According to police, between 7:30 p.m. on April 20 and noon the following day, someone tossed a rock through a rear window of the Bab E Mustafa Community Center on the 4300 block of Hollins Ferry Road.

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Members of the community center report being routinely taunted by juveniles in the neighborhood, police said.

Police classified the vandalism incident as possibly related to religion, race or ethnic bias, commonly known as a hate crime.

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Under Maryland law, it is illegal to vandalize or attempt to vandalize any religious property or to interfere with any person in the exercise of their religious beliefs.

Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for CAIR, said the incident is similar to acts that have been directed at other Islamic mosques and community centers across the country.

Hooper noted that a Maryland man was recently found guilty of assaulting a Virginia Muslim who alleged a bias motive for the attack. CAIR also asked the FBI to investigate a series of threatening letters sent to mosques in North Carolina.

"We see a pattern across the country," he said. "Often it is a shattered window or door. There is not necessarily 'death to Islam' scrawled on the wall."

While the incident at the Riverview community center may seem like random vandalism, it has a context that can't be overlooked.

"You never know about these things," Hooper said. "It could have been a drunken teenager. But as an Islamic civil rights organization, we have to look at this seriously."

Police officials said they will step up patrols in the area of the community center.


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