Group calls for investigation into hate crimes at Muslim center

CHICAGO — After possible bullet holes were found at the Muslim Community Center this week, the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Saturday it is asking police to investigate the incident as a potential hate crime.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote in its press release that the “targeted act of violence” against the mosque “appears to be another attack targeting the Muslim community.” Founded in 1969, the Irving Park Muslim Community Center is one of Chicago’s oldest and largest Muslim organizations.

According to Saif Mazhar, chairman of the Muslim Community Center’s security committee, office staff first discovered what appeared to be bullet holes in the building’s glass doors over Labor Day weekend. When several more holes were discovered two days later Tuesday, Mazhar said he realized the mosque was being targeted.

The community has since been “shaken up,” Mazhar said. On Thursday, he contacted the FBI to ask them to look into the incident as a potential hate crime, alongside the Chicago Police Department’s investigation.

“We don’t want to be targeted again,” Mazhar said. “What we would like is for the FBI to actually investigate the situation, because we are citizens too. We live here too. We are Americans too. So we don’t want to be the ‘others’… we want to be on the same team.”

Damage to windows and doors at the Muslim community center was reported to police around 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Chicago Police Department. No offenders have been taken into custody and investigators are investigating the incident, police said Saturday.

Chicago police could not say whether the incident was specifically being investigated as a hate crime.

However, CAIR-Chicago officials reiterated that the choice to damage a mosque was probably not random.

“It is unclear what the source of what appears to be bullet holes is—whether it was a pistol, an air gun, or something else—but what seems clear is that whoever inflicted this damage on a Muslim house of worship did not come in peace,” Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago, wrote in his press release Saturday. “This attack is not just about a building; it is an attack on the safety of the Muslim community and their right to worship freely.”

The vandalism against the Muslim Community Center occurred at night, while the mosque was closed, Mazhar said. Security cameras did not capture the incident, he said, because the cameras were not pointed directly at the doors.

Mazhar said the mosque had delayed repairing the damage to the building for several days, hoping the FBI or other investigators would come by to analyze possible bullet holes. But when no one came, they now plan to start repairing their building, he said.

Mazhar, who was born and raised in Chicago, said that while he has felt more Islamophobia lately, “for years and years, you still feel like you’re just like everyone else and not part of the community.”

Hafsa Haider, a spokeswoman for CAIR-Chicago, said hate crimes against Palestinians and the Muslim community in general have increased significantly since the Democratic National Convention in August. This recent attack on a Muslim house of worship is “particularly disturbing,” Haider said, because mosques are supposed to be where people “feel most safe, comfortable and vulnerable.”

“We want to make sure that this situation is taken seriously, as if it were any other religious group that is being targeted,” Haider said. “We find that sometimes our voices and the needs of our community are not considered a priority.”

The incident at the Muslim Community Center is not the only one of its kind this week, CAIR officials noted. Another act of vandalism on visibly Muslim property occurred over Labor Day weekend, when the window of the Palestinian-owned Nabala Cafe in Uptown was smashed. A Palestinian flag had been displayed in the vandalized window.

“This is the second attack on Muslim property in recent days that police have considered to be simple destruction of property; hate motivation should not be dismissed without a thorough investigation,” CAIR-Chicago attorney Joseph Milburn wrote in the organization’s statement.

From January to June 2024, CAIR received 4,951 complaints of Islamophobic discrimination, a 69% increase from the same period in 2023, according to the nonprofit.

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(Tribune reporter Deanese Williams-Harris contributed to this report.)

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