Vandals paint anti-Islamic graffiti on Louisville mosque; mayor asks community

Members of the Louisville Islamic Center found spray-painted messages on Wednesday night when they were gathered for a prayer session, including “Moslems – Leave the Jews Alone”, “This is for France” and “Nazis Speak Arabic”.

Matt Goldberg, director of community relations for the Jewish Community of Louisville, told the news conference that his organization stands in solidarity with the Islamic members in “wholeheartedly condemning this disgusting act”.

People of all faiths are coming together to erase messages of hate that were spray painted on the building earlier this week.

Muhammad Babar, a spokesman for the Louisville Islamic Center, responded in a statement, “We will fight hatred and bigotry with compassion and love as Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Jesus and Moses did centuries ago”.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and local interfaith leaders held a press conference on Thursday to denounce the vandalism.

Hundreds of members of a Kentucky community have turned out to help clean anti-Muslim graffiti off a mosque.

“Whoever did this act, we would like to invite him or the group of people if they are involved, to join us in the clean-up tomorrow with the community”, said Babar. “And if that person is meaning to send us a message to leave – America is our country and our adopted homeland… we’re not going anywhere”.

“To our Islamic center, I want to apologize on behalf of the entire community for this unacceptable incident here”, Fischer said, adding the intolerance harms all of Louisville, not just Muslims.

Babar said he filed a police report and has spoken to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the incident.

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