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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/m...politan/2438507
Mosque vandalized in Lubbock
Associated Press
LUBBOCK - The spiritual leader of a Lubbock mosque discovered anti-Muslim graffiti, broken computers and broken windows when he arrived at the mosque for morning prayers on Sunday.
Police said the graffiti and vandalism of the Islamic Center of the South Plains took place sometime between 10 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday. Police would not elaborate on what the graffiti said, but mosque officials said they were racial and anti-Muslim in nature.
Lubbock police Lt.
Jerry Brewer said there was significant property damage. In addition to the broken equipment and windows, a sound system and a VCR were stolen and a donation box was torn open, and the funds inside stolen,
r
the
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported in its Monday
editions.
Imam Mohamed El-Moctar said he discovered the vandalism when he arrived at 6:20 a.m.
El-Moctar said he contacted police and the FBI was investigating. FBI officials in Lubbock and Dallas did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press for comment. Miles Burden, supervisor-in-charge of the Lubbock FBI office, told the newspaper that agents went to the scene Sunday morning but he could not comment further.
El-Moctar said the mosque had been vandalized before, but there had been no anti-Muslim graffiti.
He said the mosque would look at increasing its security, but leaders were not afraid to continue worshipping in the building, which opened in 1981. There are about 700 Muslims in the Lubbock area, El-Moct
ar said.
"This one action, it does not reflect the friendship of the people we know out here," he said. "I don't believe it reflects a real threat."
"We h
ope
they will
find the people who are responsible," El-Moctar said.
