In a shocking incident of Islamophobia in the aftermath of terror attacks in Paris, torn pages of the Holy Quran were found on Monday at the door of a mosque in an Austin suburb in Texas.
“Someone had torn apart a Quran and dumped a large amount of feces on it at the front entrance of the mosque,” the man who discovered it told police, CBS affiliate KEYE reported.
The man further said that he discovered the mess when he arrived for morning prayers around 05: 55am on Monday morning. “I do not know of anyone making any threats toward the center. The last time anyone was there was on Sunday night around 10:00pm.”
There was no physical damage to the facility, and the clean-up costs were estimated to be approximately $150. The Austin Police Department said it had increased patrols around “sensitive sites.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the incident which it said was one of several incidents targeting Muslims in the US in recent days.
In a statement, the group encouraged state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate the vandalism as a hate crime.
Since the Paris attacks which were claimed by the Islamic State, Muslims in western nations are suffering severe backlash.
A mosque in Canada was set ablaze in Ontario’s Peterborough area Saturday and police is searching for suspects.
Although police had declared it a hate crime, detectives said it was unclear whether the attack was in connection with the deadly Paris terror attacks that left 129 dead.
This article originally appeared on MNC-NEWS
