Muslim leaders call for hate crime investigation in mosque vandalism in Minnesota

Muslim leaders are urging police and the FBI to investigate weekend vandalism at a northeast Minneapolis mosque as a hate crime.

Muslim leaders are urging police and the FBI to investigate weekend vandalism at a northeast Minneapolis mosque as a hate crime.

Surveillance video from the Salaam Cultural Center shows a person throwing rocks through a glass entry door and then kicking out the remaining broken glass around 3:40 a.m. Sunday.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said mosques have been on edge since the attacks in New Zealand and the 2017 firebombing of the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington.

“We look forward to hopefully this being not something of a pattern that we continue to see that mosques will be targeted for vandalism of any kind,” Hussein said.

While Minneapolis police are investigating the incident, the vandal did not leave behind any indication of motive, such as graffiti. Spokesperson John Elder said that could make it hard to prove racial or religious bias.