AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Westwood Islamic Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, was targeted for an attack and vandalism for the third time in seven years; an incident that members of the Muslim community consider an Islamophobic act and say they have little hope of serious investigation by the FBI due to the prevailing political climate.
The attackers entered the center by cutting security wires and breaking windows, ransacked the interior office, and stole a number of items, including a surveillance camera and monitors. Offensive words and phrases such as "die" were written on the center's whiteboard, and the glass of two frames containing Quranic verses was shattered.
Center officials and local Muslim community members have assessed this incident not as an ordinary theft, but as an attack motivated by religious hatred. According to them, this center, which in addition to being a mosque has a kitchen and a food distribution center for residents of a predominantly low-income Black neighborhood in western Cincinnati, had been targeted twice before.
Nashid Shaker, a member of the center's board of trustees, referring to the history of previous attacks, said the police merely completed a report and, several days after the attack, no effective follow-up has taken place. He added, "This time, the same pattern was repeated; the windows were broken, property was stolen, and hateful words were written on the walls and boards."
This attack comes at a time when, according to Muslim rights activists, Islamophobia in America has once again intensified, and simultaneously, Muslim and Arab-American candidates and figures in the political arena are facing verbal and propaganda attacks. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has recently made headlines multiple times by repeating offensive anti-Islamic rhetoric; remarks that observers say fuel the atmosphere of hatred.
In Cincinnati, local Muslims are now focusing more on cooperating with local officials and increasing security at places of worship rather than relying on federal institutions. They say past experiences, including the 2005 bombing of Cincinnati's Clifton Mosque, which never led to the conviction of those responsible, have undermined their trust in the serious pursuit of such cases.
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