Friday May 12, 2023
By Paul Walsh
Video shows someone damaging the front doors to a mosque in St. Paul.
Video captured a vandal target a mosque in St. Paul with a large rock. PROVIDED BY CAIR-MINNESOTA
The incident, captured on exterior security video, occurred about 7 a.m. at the Masjid Al Sunnah Mosque in the 300 block of Pedersen Street, according to the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Minnesota).
In the video, a male wearing a mask and holding an umbrella walked toward the mosque, picked up a large rock and threw it at the front doors three times.
"We urge law enforcement authorities to investigate this incident as a possible hate crime," CAIR-Minnesota Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said in a statement. "As worshippers gather for Friday prayers, they will be confronted with the distressing sight of their mosque's front door smashed."
A request was submitted mid-day Friday to police for what information they may have about the vandalism. No arrests have been announced.
Friday morning's incident is the latest in what Hussein called "a deeply concerning trend."
On April 29, 36-year-old Jackie Rahm Little, 36, was arrested in Mankato and faces arson charges in connection with two fires at Minneapolis mosques, including one in which 40 children were in a basement daycare.
Prosecutors say the fires at the mosques occurred after vandalism that targeted the office of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar.
On Jan. 5, Little allegedly went to Omar's Minneapolis office and spray-painted the outside of the office door. That evening, he allegedly spray-painted the same thing on the door of a Minneapolis police car being used by a Somali officer and on the door to the 24 Somali Mall on E. 24th Street a few hours later.
On the evening of April 23, police said, Little lit a cardboard box on fire in the second-floor bathroom of the Masjid Omar Islamic Center, a mosque in the same 24th Street building as the 24 Somali Mall.
The next evening, at Masjid Al Rahma mosque on Bloomington Avenue, investigators allege Little started a fire on the third floor of a small building attached to the mosque.