“This is our home…”

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On Monday, members of a South Philadelphia mosque and city and state officials asked the community to help them find the person who wrote anti-Muslim graffiti on the house of worship.

ABOVE PHOTO: United Muslim Islamic Center at 1251 Point Breeze vandalized with graffiti. (Photo courtesy: United Muslim Islamic Center)

By Denise Clay-Murray

When Qasim Rashad, president of the United Muslim Islamic Center on Point Breeze Avenue, came to the house of worship last Thursday morning, he saw something that broke his heart.

Someone had come to the mosque and wrote anti-Muslim graffiti on one of the windows. While it felt like a violation to him, what he really wanted to know was why, Rashad said.

“This is where we come to pray, we come to break bread, we come with family members,” he said. “And to wake up to that kind of thing, it’s such a violation that you cannot fathom, you know, how it impacts your soul and how it impacts you as an individual.”

“But at the same time,” Rashad continued, “we say Islam is a religion of peace. 

That’s not just a cliché – that’s what it is. So, we would extend a welcome to this person and ask why they feel this way? What can we do to change your opinions about Islam, about Muslims? Because it was directed at Muslims.”

Rashad joined Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson (D-2nd Dist.), State Rep. Jordan Harris (D-186th Dist.), and Salima Suswell, executive director of Emgage Pennsylvania, an organization that educates and mobilizes Muslim American voters, in denouncing the vandalism and calling on the community for leads.

There has been a rise in anti-Muslim violence throughout the country  since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.

 Last week, Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution that condemned Hamas’s attacks on Israel and called for peace on both sides.

Johnson, who co-sponsored the resolution with Councilmember Mike Driscoll (D-6th Dist.), said he has friends and family who attend the UMIC Mosque, so coming to their aid was a no-brainer. He’s hoping that the community will join hands and support the mosque.

“I wanted to make sure that we come out here and show a unified front and support the members who attend this masjid,” Johnson said. 

“We’re also calling on the Philadelphia Police Department to make sure that the individuals who did vandalize this particular masjid are brought to justice, because at the end of the day, we don’t need anybody trying to incite any types of acts of violence between any ethnic groups, or any religious groups here in Point Breeze, South Philadelphia, or the City of Philadelphia as a whole.”

Harris, head of the House Appropriations Committee, also pledged the Commonwealth’s support.

“This is my family, and these are my friends,” Harris said. “When someone hurts my family or my friends, it’s our duty to show up. Hate has no place in our city — it has no place on Point Breeze Avenue.”

One way the support is manifesting itself is in House Bill 1772, which doubles the amount of state funding available to nonprofit organizations in need of security updates. It passed out of the Appropriations Committee last week and heads to the State Senate for passage. 

The graffiti is just the latest in a string of anti-Muslim incidents that have occurred recently, Suswell said. A shooting happened at the Capital during a protest and around the country incidents such as the stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy by his parent’s landlord have made everyone more alert, she said.

Anyone with information that can lead to an arrest in this incident can call or text the Police Tipline at: (215) 686-TIPS(8477). The public can also submit anonymous tips online by visiting: www.phillypolice.com/forms/submit-a-tip/.

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