HPD Investigating Possible Hate Crime At Mosque

October 8, 2009

Author: Lindsay Wise

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/new/6658660.html

The FBI and Houston police are investigating a possible hate crime after someone scrawled anti-Islamic remarks on the wall of a southwest Houston mosque.

About 4 p.m. Wednesday, an unidentified man entered the Turkish Center Mosque at 9301 W. Bellfort and wrote hateful phrases about Islam and Muslims on the wall, said Dr. Aziz Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, a nonprofit representing 300,000 area Muslims.

Siddiqi characterized the phrases as “very derogatory,” but declined to repeat their exact wording.

“We don't want this to happen to any community,” he said. “If they did this at a synagogue or church we would be just as upset. These kinds of things shouldn't happen in America.”

Siddiqi said ISGH is sponsoring an interfaith lecture series with Rice University's Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance and sponsors free medical clinics open to all, regardless of religion.