Yep, several more recent and largely unremarked incidents of hate-fueled vandalism and aggression against Muslims and their sites of worship. In suburban Chicago, 51-year-old David Conrad has been arrested for firing pellets from a high-velocity air-rifle into the outside structure of the Muslim Education Center during Ramadan services on Friday:
A man who lives next to a mosque in north suburban Morton Grove has been charged after he allegedly fired a pellet rifle at the building while 500 people prayed inside.
David Conrad, 51, lives just east of the mosque and faces three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, a class X felony, and one count of criminal damage to property, a class 4 felony, Morton Grove police said in an early Sunday press release.
[...]
Hussain [Vice President of the Muslim Community Center of Chicago] said this was not the first time parts of the building have been damaged, but it was the first time mosque officials had reported it to police. Erickson said the additional incidents — described as broken windows — were part of the current investigation.
On Tuesday near Chino, California, pigs' legs were thrown onto the proposed site of a mosque at the time when two dozen people had gathered for evening Ramadan prayers:
A Southern California Islamic organization has asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate an incident this week in which three pig legs were allegedly thrown onto the site of a proposed mosque near Chino.
The greater Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked federal officials to look into the incident as a possible hate crime. The mosque's construction was approved this year by San Bernardino County officials but has been stalled by a lawsuit filed by opponents.
CAIR said the animal parts were thrown on the driveway of the proposed Al-Nur Islamic Center just before 10 p.m. Tuesday. About two dozen people, who had received a special permit, were gathered at the site at the time for late-evening prayers for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month now in progress.
Last Sunday the Masjid al-Islam in North Smithfield, Rhode Island was
vandalized:
A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest in a vandalism incident that targeted a North Smithfield mosque.
Surveillance video shows a man running up to a sign in front of the Masjid Al-Islam mosque overnight Sunday and head-butting it. He's later seen trying to pull down the sign and running away with a piece. Two cars are seen leaving the parking lot.
All of this, of course, in the same week as the suspected arson
destruction of the mosque in Joplin, Missouri, the second suspicious fire there in less than five weeks and the third within the past four years.
Such hatred.
Ramadan Kareem, friends. May the blessings of the coming year include a diminution of such casual bigotry and hate, rooted in ignorance and fear.