Mosques Add Patrols After Two Nights of Vandalism

Sheriff’s deputies stepped up patrols Friday near the Islamic Center of South Bay in Lomita and the mosque hired a private security firm in response to two consecutive nights of vandalism.

Vandals struck the mosque and the Islamic Center of Southern California near downtown Los Angeles Thursday morning, shattering more than half a dozen windows with stones, bricks and pellets at the South Bay mosque and throwing a brick through a 15-foot-high glass door at the Los Angeles mosque on South Vermont Avenue, police and mosque officials said.

Search for Suspects

Early Wednesday, vandals had smashed four other windows at the mosque in Lomita. No one was hurt in any of the attacks, and authorities said they have no suspects.

“We are concerned because it appears it was a coordinated attack,” said Zaffar Hassanaly, president of the board at the South Bay mosque, which has a congregation of about 200. “It appears people are linking Islam with the activities of terrorists. The religion is peaceful. It does not advocate violence. We are not a political organization.”

Mohammad Qureshi, administrator at the Los Angeles mosque, said the center already has security measures in place in response to vandalism last spring. “I don’t know what else we can do,” he said. “We can’t stop everybody who walks on the street.”

A spokeswoman for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, whose regional director was killed when the group’s office in Santa Ana was bombed in October, said acts of vandalism against Muslims in the United States increase when events flare up in the Middle East.

Effects of Propaganda

“There is so much anti-Arab propaganda, it is hard to get an idea of what Islam really is about,” said Hind Baki. “How are people going to feel safe to pray? My God, these are places of worship.”

Baki, Hassanaly and Qureshi speculated that the vandalism this week was in response to bombings by terrorists last month at airports in Vienna and Rome. Reports of abusive phone calls and death threats to Arabs throughout the Los Angeles area have increased since the airport bombings, Baki said.