Moorhead mosque hopes to 'enlighten' suspect who left hateful message
A surveillance photo from police shows a suspect outside the mosque. (Moorhead Police Department)
MOORHEAD, Minn. (FOX 9) - UPDATE: Police have arrested a suspect in connection to the vandalism.
Police and federal authorities are investigating a message of hate spray painted on a Minnesota mosque late Saturday night and the local chapter of the Center for American-Islamic Relations is condemning the act.
The incident happened in Moorhead, Minnesota late Saturday night at the Moorhead Fargo Islamic Center. The vandal used red spray paint to write "Death to Islam" and draw a swastika on the sidewalk. Police released an image of the suspect taken from surveillance video.
The incident happened during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Ademola Hammed, who serves as the vice president of the mosque, says that the suspect arrived about 20 minutes after members left for the evening.
Authorities, including the FBI, are now investigating and the mosque remains open.
Saturday’s incident comes as CAIR released its latest report titled "Resilience in the Face of Hate", which details more than 6,000 civil rights complaints the group has received in the past year.
Moorhead is home to a growing Muslim community. The mosque relocated there from a few miles away in 2018.
The mosque is now welcoming the suspect into the mosque to "tell us what he has in mind in terms of his perception about Islam so that we can enlighten him more," said Hammed.
Cleanup efforts are underway and the mosque has launched a crowd funding campaign to pay for better security.