The FBI is investigating an act of vandalism against a south St. Louis mosque, amid rising rhetoric against Muslims.
Two FBI agents took photographs and interviewed members of the Masjid Qooba at 1925 Allen, after someone spray painted the side of the building with a pentagram and the words “worship Satan.”
Mosque member Tim Kaminski says it’s no accident. “We know it’s directed at us, “Kaminski said, “because they know we’re a house of worship, a house of prayer.” Kaminski says the mosque has received no threats, and the graffiti appeared on the side of the building this weekend. “You never know if somebody means you harm,” Kaminski said. ”This could be a kid who is bored. It could be somebody out of work and angry. We don’t know who it is.”
Meanwhile, an attorney for the local chapter of the Council on American/Islamic Relations believes the graffiti attack is part of a pattern of escalating rhetoric against Muslims. Jim Hacking cites this summer’s tension over the New York City Mosque, the Florida pastor threatening to burn the Koran, and this week’s Fairview Heights, Illinois standoff with the man accused of threatening Muslims.
“Nationally on things like FOX News, you have people like Newt Gingrich comparing Muslims to Nazis,” Hacking said, “Just really negative, stereotypical hatred that’s been spewing out, and it’s really at its worse level, even worse than after 911.”