Spray-painting of sign called 'hate crime'

By Mark Bell
GANNETT TENNESSEE

MURFREESBORO — The http://www.cair.com/">Council on American-Islamic Relations called on local, state, and national law enforcement agencies Monday to investigate an "apparently bias-motivated act of vandalism" at the site of a proposed mosque just outside Murfreesboro.

Over the weekend, a sign marking the future site of the http://www.icmtn.org/">Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was spray-painted with the words "not welcome."

The council quickly labeled the act a hate crime.

"As our nation celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we must come together in a spirit of mutual respect and tolerance, not of hatred or division," council National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a news release. "This apparent attempt to divide our nation along religious lines should be investigated as a hate crime and must be repudiated by all those who respect the principle of religious diversity."

A Tennessee man was sentenced last November to more than 14 years in prison for burning down the Islamic Center in Columbia. Nazi swastikas and the phrase "White Power" were painted on the mosque's walls.

Investigating this event as a hate crime would show "that actions such as these won't be tolerated by society," said council National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, in a Monday phone conversation.

Because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday, no reply to the call for action was heard from law enforcement. Calls to the Tennessee offices of the FBI in Nashville and Memphis were not returned, nor were calls for comment to the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office.

Murfreesboro Police spokesman Kyle Evans said the department has no jurisdiction in the case. Replies from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also revealed that agency "does not have statutory authority to open an investigation."

"TBI would only investigate if the district attorney general requested us to," a spokeswoman said. Calls to the Rutherford County District Attorney's Office were not returned as the office was closed for the holiday.

Hooper said the Council on American-Islamic Relations did not expect a reply from law enforcement Monday because of the holiday but hopes police will reply in the coming days and investigate "this very serious matter.

"We've unfortunately seen too many kinds of these incidents in the recent months" all over the U.S., Hooper said. "We would hope that people would stand by the Muslim community around the country and speak out against these hate-filled acts."

Message distorted

Hooper said such behaviors are often seen after terrorist incidents such as that at Fort Hood, Texas, where an Army major serving as a psychiatrist shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others. Nidal Malik Hasan said he is a practicing Muslim.

Such claims are a direct insult to practicing Muslims, however, said Hooper, who believes those using Islam to spread hate are distorting its true message.

"There are millions of American Muslims who are going to work and contributing to society on a daily basis, and unfortunately we get tarred with the brush of terrorism because of things that happen (both in the United States and) overseas that we have no control over."

Hooper, who grew up in the Midwest and is of European ancestry, points out that anyone interested in Islam should go to the local mosque to learn the true meaning of Islam, which literally means "submission to God." One doesn't have to be of Middle Eastern descent to be accepted, he added.

"All of this goes back to lack of information. People see a violent event from overseas being carried out falsely in the name of Islam and assume that is true Islam," he said. "We don't (assume) that for other faiths or ethnicities, and we shouldn't do it to Islam or Muslims."