Quebec mosque again hit by vandals

Gatineau mosque graffiti2A mosque in Gatineau, Que., that has been a target of vandalism was spray-painted with graffiti overnight.

Workers at the Outaouais Islamic Centre awoke Thursday to discover swear words and derogatory references to Arabs and Allah spray-painted in white. The vandals painted messages on the front doors, across the building’s side and on two other entrances to the building.

The mosque had earlier been vandalized Monday morning when windows were damaged and someone attempted to set fire to two cars in the parking lot.

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Far-right party that incites anti-Muslim hatred thinks it unlikely that attacks on mosque were motivated by hatred of Muslims

Darrin HodgesA nationalist political party spokesman thinks it unlikely that recent attacks at the Newcastle mosque are motivated by religion.

The Newcastle Herald reported yesterday that attacks at the mosque at Wallsend, including one caught on a closed-circuit television camera, had left the city’s Muslim community feeling “vulnerable and scared”.

Australian Protectionist Party spokesman Darrin Hodges [pictured] said yesterday he believed many people were “concerned about what goes on inside” mosques, but the attackers “could just be local drunks”. “I’m a bit suspicious about all that,” Mr Hodges said. “It doesn’t mean they’re doing it because it’s a mosque.”

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Alleged Queens firebomber wanted to massacre Muslims in mosque, prosecutors say

Imam Al-Khoei Islamic CenterThe unhinged Queens pyromaniac who unleashed a scary New Year’s Day firebombing spree had planned to take out “as many Muslims and Arabs as possible” by lobbing Molotov cocktails at worshipers inside a mosque, prosecutors said.

Ray Lazier Lengend, 40, allegedly told cops he had planned to inflict “as much damage as possible” by hurling all five of his firebombs from the balcony of Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center onto the crowd below. The hateful bomb-hurler, who is under psychiatric observation at Bellevue Hospital center, flat-out told detectives he did not like Muslims or Arabs, prosecutors said.

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Florida: Muslim shopper attacked with stun gun

The woman was walking through the housewares aisle at the Walmart store on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa shortly before 9 p.m. New Year’s Day. She was dressed in ashalwaar kameez, a tunic traditional in her native Pakistan.

As she reached over to pick up an item, she saw a woman holding what looked like a portable device used to scan items. The next thing she knew, according to her daughter, the woman in the tunic felt a sharp pain in her back. She let out a scream and had to hold on to a rack to keep from collapsing.

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EDL ‘Angels’ to face trial over attack on kebab shop

Hayley Wells & Kelly WattersonTwo women who have denied a religiously-motivated assault on a Kurdish woman at a city centre takeaway will face trial later this year.

Hayley Wells, aged 27, and Kelly Watterson, aged 29, both appeared at Plymouth Crown Court on the joint charge of religiously aggravated common assault on Sawda Kurdo at the Istanbul Kebab shop in Exeter Street on August 31 last year.

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New South Wales: fear of escalating violence after mosque attack

Newcastle mosque attackAn attack on a Newcastle mosque, trapping seven worshippers inside, has been caught on security camera.

The attack happened only minutes after a group of children had finished a scripture class and is the latest in a series of incidents that have left the city’s Muslim community feeling “vulnerable and scared”.

In the security footage, which has been provided to police, two tattooed men are seen to approach the Wallsend mosque about 9.30pm on Monday. One man, with a large tattoo of a cross on his neck, kicks through the fence gate and hurls an object at the mosque’s front door. Then he runs and smashes a flying kick into the door. More objects are thrown at the building and one of the men is seen to shout what appears to be abuse.

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Quebec mosque target of arson and vandalism

Outaouais Islamic Centre vandalism

Representatives of a Gatineau, Que., mosque say they are concerned about vandalism after someone tried to set fire to two cars in their parking lot early Monday morning.

Sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. a person attempted to set fire to two cars parked at the mosque but was unsuccessful, according to Amadou Thiam, the secretary general for the Outaouais Islamic Centre. Two windows at the mosque itself were also broken.

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New York: Molotov cocktails thrown at Islamic centre ‘being investigated as possible hate crime’

Al Khoei centreCops are investigating a rash of Molotov cocktail attacks in Queens late Sunday, including one on an Islamic mosque and another that set off a major house fire. Police are handling the four bottle-bombings as possible hate crimes, officials said.

The homemade explosives were hurled at a bodega, the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica and two homes between 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m., cops said. All of the targets were in Jamaica, within two miles of each other, police said. “They definitely appear to be quite similar,” a police source said, “We’re looking into them as bias crimes.”

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Murfreesboro Islamic Center has reasons to celebrate

Islamic Center of Murfreesboro site

Despite threats, courtroom allegations and even legislation aimed at their faith, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro still had reason to celebrate in 2011. The congregation launched construction in late September on building the first 12,000 square feet of their new mosque and community center on Veals Road, southeast of Murfreesboro. S&A Constructors of Nashville estimates the work to be done in 10 months.

Getting to the historic moment almost didn’t happen. The congregation had to defend itself in Rutherford County Chancery Court against more than a dozen plaintiffs who challenged the county’s approval of its site plan in 2010 and questioned the real intent, as well as the very religion, behind the new worship center. It took a ruling by Rutherford County Chancellor Robert Corlew III to settle the latter issue.

“Those who are adherents to Islam are entitled to pursue their worship in the United States just as are those who are adherents to more universally established faiths (in our community),” Corlew wrote. “We are all very familiar with the legal principle that in the United States, all citizens enjoy the right to freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

“We have a duty equally to treat those whose religious beliefs are similar to the majority beliefs and to those whose beliefs are very different from the majority,” Corlew added in his ruling.

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