Mosque
Vandalised in the US
BY Linda Rush
The Southern Illinoisan
28 April, 2003
CARBONDALE -- "We respect
all religions and expect them to respect ours as well," said Dr.
Muhammad Kamran, a Carbondale physician and member of the Islamic congregation
in Carbondale. His 6-year-old son, Moosa, stood at his side.
Kamran and other Muslims
were standing in the parking lot of the
Islamic Center on Poplar Street, just north of College Street,
Monday. Sometime late Sunday night or early Monday, vandals had sprayed
messages in black paint on the pale yellow siding and light-colored
doors of the center.
Police were contacted at
11:25 a.m. by a passerby who saw the damage. Construction workers nearby
said the damage was evident when they arrived at work at around 6:30
a.m. Sgt. Mark Diedrick of the Carbondale Police Department said the
graffiti was photographed, but no evidence was collected at the scene,
nor are there any suspects.
"Free Kashmir,"
read the only English message on the building.
Kashmir is a disputed area, with India and Pakistan both claiming
jurisdiction to the land that lies between them.
Also sprayed on the building
was a phrase that praises a non-Muslim Hindu god. It translates as "Long
live Shri Rama," said one young man. "These are Hindu religious
symbols, like a cross for Christianity. These symbols are seen in their
temples."
The Islamic Center has been
in Carbondale for 18 years, serving a congregation of Southern Illinois
University students and faculty,
and numerous professional families in Southern Illinois. Between 30
and 50 people will be gathered there for evening prayers. On Fridays,
about 200 gather to pray at the mosque on North Wall and Chestnut streets.
And until Monday, the Islamic
Center's only problems had been
occasional beer bottles or trash strewn on the parking lot, damage the
congregation believes is just a byproduct of student parties.
The painted slogans, though,
are hard to ignore.
"It's good it didn't
happen Saturday night," said Rizwan Hashmi, "or the children
would have seen it when they came to Sunday school." Hashmi, a
doctoral student at SIUC, heads the board of directors for the center.
He said about 60 children ages 5 to 12 attend Sunday the school.
"People come here for
morning prayer at 5 a.m., but it was still dark then," Hashmi said.
"Nobody saw the damage." The vandalism was on the sides of
the building away from Poplar Street.
Hashmi also left a phone
message for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Special agent Rick Stonecipher had earlier met with the
board, asking its member to contract him if they had any
problems, he said.
Congregation member Iqbal
Mohammed said, "We have many friends who are Hindus." Others,
too, said it would be wrong to characterize the vandalism as an act
by any one group. "It can be anybody," Hashmi added. "Everybody
knows Carbondale is a peaceful place."
As Moosa played quietly nearby
in the gravel, Kamran was asked what he will tell his son and 8-year-old
daughter, Haani, about the
incident.
"I don't know what to
tell him," he admitted quietly. "I do not know
how to explain it to anybody. I don't want to tell him it was done by
Hindus. Our neighbors and friends are Hindus."
Hashmi said he would tell
his children they will have to cope with
those who disagree with them. "It's a good lesson to them -- each
religion teaches its adherents to tolerate," he added.
Anaz Zubair, too, cautioned
against placing blame -- even with the reference to Kashmir. Pointing
to his friend Hashmi, Zubair said, "I'm an Indian; he's a Pakistani.
It's not as simplistic as they
portray. It's a moot point." He believes one or two people simply
committed a crime. "It's not the whole Hindu community."
Zubair, an SIUC student,
said Islam provides a lesson on tolerance, with a story about a nomad
who went inside a mosque and urinated. When angry Muslims attempted
to drive him out or punish him, Muhammad told them to let him be and
not disturb him.
"The lesson," Zubair
said, "is not to lash out in anger when someone wrongs you."
The writer can be contacted
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