Vandalized Murfreesboro Mosque Plans To Ask For State, Federal Investigation

A prominent mosque in Rutherford County plans to ask state and federal law enforcement to investigate an act of vandalism that occurred early Monday morning.

Members of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro say they found obscenities written in spray paint and slices of bacon wrapped around door handles. The vandals also left a signature and attempted to write a message in bacon on the ground outside a side entrance.

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has been a target for vandals many times before. Even before it opened in 2012, opponents tried to thwart its construction by setting fire to equipment, and trustee Saleh Sbenaty says the hostility has never entirely gone away.

Members of the mosque have tried to shrug off minor incidents, including a couple of thefts, Sbenaty says. But the latest vandalism was on outside walls and combined a curse word with the Arabic word Allah, a line too bright to ignore.

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