Illinois: grave defaced with anti-Islamic writing for second time this month

An Evergreen Cemetery grave was defaced with anti-Islamic writing sometime during the night on Aug. 28-29, said Evergreen Park Police Lt. Peter Donovan.

The grave site, which also features a bench and obelisk, was vandalized with black marker scribblings in a manner almost identical to what was discovered and cleaned up two weeks ago, Donovan said. Unlike the prior incident, however, a video camera was trained on the scene.

The graffiti features profanity, gang symbols and anti-Islamic slurs. This marks the seventh time that this particular site has been vandalized since March 2011, each time in very similar fashion, Donovan said.

In response to the incident several weeks ago the cemetery installed lights around the grave site and police mounted a camera. Detectives are reviewing any footage that may have been captured the night of the most recent incident, Donovan said.

After the mid-August incident area Muslim group’s denounced the crime and announced that they would be following up with both local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Evergreen Park Patch, 1 September 2012