By Bob Plain in Rhode Island’s Future
The Muslim Community Center of Kingston was vandalized Thursday
evening. Several windows were broken and “Muhammod (sic) Prophet of butchers”
was spray painted on the outside wall of the mosque near the University of
Rhode Island campus.
“This is a very peaceful community, very little happens here,
we’re very supported here and we are a part of the community so we didn’t
expect it,” said Nasser Zawia, a URI neuroscience professor and spokesman for
the mosque that serves as a place of worship for many URI students and faculty.
“But given everything that is going in the world these days with
terrorism in France and everywhere else and what is happening in the US, it is
… not necessarily understandable but expected that somebody would act out of
ignorance.”
In an exclusive interview with RI Future, URI President David
Dooley said, “I really never expected anything like this to happen here. It’s
just not been the kind of place either on the campus on in Kingston as a whole
where these acts are very common. I was dismayed that it happened. It was just
one of those moments when you say, ‘what is happening to us, why do these
things seem to be so much more common than they were, what forces are driving
people to behave in this way’ and more importantly ‘what can we do mitigate it,
prevent it and create a world where these acts are just much less common.'”
There is a community meal, open to the public, every other Saturday evening, at
the Muslim Community Center of Kingston. He encouraged all people to attend.
There is an interfaith vigil at the mosque (60 Fortin Rd. Kingston) Saturday at
1:30.
All people are encouraged to attend.
Dooley said, “We want to take every act like this, as hurtful
and as harmful as it might be, and look at how we can use it as a moment to
strengthen our ties together. We’re not going to be intimidated, we’re going to
be helpful.”
The vandalism was removed by noon on Friday. This is at least
the second incident of vandalism to a Muslim institution in Rhode Island. In
February, 2015, a Muslim school in West Warwick was vandalized.
Zawia said, “To be honest with you with all this horrible stuff
we’ve been watching on TV and with all the deaths of innocent people it has
kind of muted the way we react. It’s not novel. This compared to that was
really nothing. We are approaching this as just a minor incident. It’s very
sad. We’re having horrible hateful rhetoric at the national level. If you
propagate hate, you will get hate. If you propagate tolerance you are going to
get that.”
South Kingstown police detectives are investigating and believe
“there was a witness that did observe someone running from the area,” said
Captain Joel Ewing-Chow. A news release from the police reads:
At
approximately 11 PM on July 14, 2016 the South Kingstown Police Department
received a call reporting windows being smashed at the Muslim Community Center
located at 60 Fortin Road in Kingston, RI. Officers responded and found a
window broken as well as the words “Muhammad Prophet of Butchers” spray painted
in red lettering on the outside of the building.
A witness to the
incident described seeing a lone perpetrator wearing all black with a hood
covering their head break a window with what appeared to be a long handled axe.
This individual then ran from the scene. South Kingstown Police as well as
members of the University of Rhode Island Police Department checked the
immediate area and could not locate the suspect.
The
South Kingstown Police Department is currently actively investigating the
incident.
If
anyone has any information they are asked to please call the South Kingstown
Police Department at (401)783-3321.
“This is a blessed community in Rhode Island and we should never
think that the act of one person should tarnish all of us,” Zawia said. “We
should just stay together, we are in it together.”
Bob Plain is the
editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously, he's worked as a
reporter for several different news organizations both in Rhode Island and
across the country.