Pair of Hawthorne mosques vandalized, fake grenade left in driveway

Hawthorne police received a call around 6:30 a.m. Sunday about vandalism and a possible explosive device in front of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque in the 13000 block of Prairie Avenue.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), from Los Angeles, have begun investigating the cases with the Hawthorne Police Department.

When officers arrived, they discovered what appeared to be a hand a grenade-type device in the driveway, along with graffiti sprayed on the fence of the property. A short time later, the words “Jesus is the way” were found spray-painted on the Islamic Center of Hawthorne.

The vandalism in Hawthorne came one day after city leaders, including Hawthorne Police Chief Robert Fager, had an interfaith rally that was jointly hosted by the Islamic Center of Hawthorne and a local Catholic parish, police said.

Ahsan Khan, a chapter president at the Ahmadiyya mosque, said: “This type of behaviour is born out of ignorance and fear and we as members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community… we respond with peaceful dialogue”.

The mosque is about 75 miles from San Bernardino, where a couple who federal officials say were inspired by Islamist extremists opened fire December 2 at a holiday luncheon and killed 14 people.

“It’s nearly acceptable now to hate Islam and Muslims, and now we see the results”.

Someone had also spray-painted “Jesus” across the mosque’s fence.

The fire at the Islamic Center of Palm Springs was contained to the small building’s front lobby, and no one was injured.

The FBI said Sunday it is working with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs department ‘to identify the person or group responsible, the motivation and whether religious bias was a factor.

There have been a rash of apparent anti-Muslim crimes across the country following the San Bernardino shooting and the Paris terrorist attack, and even non-Muslims have mistakenly been targeted.

On Friday a fire was set at another mosque near the site of the shooting, the Islamic Society of Coachella Valley, in Coachella.