Man tosses shovels of garbage, urine onto front door of Long Island mosque
HICKSVILLE, Long Island (WABC) -- Nassau police are looking for the man who threw urine and garbage onto the front door of a mosque in Hicksville.
Surveillance video from the Faizan-e-Aisha mosque shows a man walk up to the front door of the mosque on Heitz Place twice and toss shovels of garbage and urine onto the front door. The refuse landed in the area where mosque members leave their shoes to go into the mosque to pray.
"As a representative of this community, it is my duty to condemn this act," mosque member Talib Hussain said.
The incident happened August 13. Members of the mosque did not report it to police until Thursday because they said the same man returned and threatened people outside who came to the mosque to pray.
"We're not sure if he said, don't bomb the place or bomb the place," said a mosque member, who did not want his name printed. "Nevertheless, there's a threat."
The same man who did not want to be identified said be believes the vandalism is directly related to the crisis situation in Afghanistan. He said the mosque only opened a year ago and they've never experienced an incident like this one.
He said the Muslim community is worried that this is the beginning of another wave of Islamophobia, which threatened the entire Muslim community post 9/11.
"These are real concerns that we have," he said. "We've been through it. We're worried about the second generation."
Police are investigating the incident as a possible biased crime.
CAIR is condemning the vandalism targeting the mosque.
In a statement, CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher said,
"This type of apparently bias-motivated attack on a house of worship is absolutely unacceptable and should be condemned by political and religious leaders of all backgrounds. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, we must all stress national unity and mutual understanding, not division and hatred."
She noted that earlier this month, CAIR-NY condemned hate vandalism of a Long Island Sikh temple and a hate attack against a 13-year-old Sikh boy, which also occurred on Long Island.
"This is obviously an act that none of us here expected that would happen in this community, in this neighborhood," said mosque member Aiman Khan.
If you recognize the man in the video, you should call Nassau Police at 1-800-244-TIPS.
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