Three 16-year-old boys were arrested and charged Monday evening in last week’s vandalism at the Islamic Center of Delaware in Ogletown, state police said Monday night.

Word of the arrests surfaced as Delaware residents of many faiths gathered for a prayer service at the Islamic Society’s multi-purpose hall in a show of community solidarity.

The president of the Islamic Society of Delaware said the incident showed the power of a community to push back against intolerance. “We can make our town … our state … a better place,” Mahamed Allimulla said to a crowd of more than 150 people that filled every seat in the Islamic Society of Delaware hall.

Among them were Jews, Christians and Sikhs who spoke to the crowd. They each said they value interfaith efforts in Delaware, and that the incident would spark renewed commitment to teaching the community about religious tolerance.

The damage was discovered Friday morning as members arrived at the mosque on Salem Church Road. The main sign identifying the Islamic Society of Delaware was knocked down, a digital sign was damaged with rocks and a white picket fence was broken into pieces, with a cross made of some broken fencing.

Although a makeshift cross was part of the vandals’ work, police did not add a hate crime to the charges leveled Monday. Each of the three youths was charged with felony criminal mischief resulting in damage of more than $5,000, and each was charged with second-degree conspiracy, Sgt. Paul G. Shavack said.

Authorities did not consider the crude construction of a cross – typically considered a Christian symbol – to be proof that the incident was an anti-Islamic or religion-motivated vandalism spree, he said. “We have no evidence that it was a hate crime,” Shavack said.

“After a thorough and comprehensive joint investigation by the Delaware State Police and FBI,” he said, “there was no evidence to suggest that this act of vandalism was directed, targeted or focused on the Islamic Society of Delaware or the Islamic community.” Rather than a hate crime, Shavack said, “it was a random act of stupidity by teenagers.”

Continue reading →

Worshippers making their way to morning prayer found the entryway to the Islamic Center of Delaware vandalized.

The fences to their driveway had been torn down, a wooden sign had been knocked to the ground and an electronic sign was damaged with rocks and possibly mud tossed at it. A cross was fashioned from the debris and placed on the electric sign along Salem Church Road near Newark.

“This is very hard. This is very shocking for us,” said Mahamed Allimulla, president of the Islamic Society of Delaware. “We’re just trying to realize why this happened.”

Allimulla said the damage was done sometime between midnight and 5:30 a.m. today. State police were out investigating the damage this morning. Allimulla said he would be contacting federal authorities as well.

Although police have not commented on the incident, Allimulla said he believes this to be a hate crime and wondered if the people who did the damage had been casing the organization, since Friday is the day of Jumma prayer, drawing about 1,000 people for the afternoon service.

Continue reading →