Police in Pflugerville, Texas, were called to the Islamic Center of Pflugerville early Monday morning after a Koran was found at the entrance of the mosque with its pages torn and coated in feces.
Another act of vandalism was reported on Monday at the Omaha Islamic Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The Associated Press reported that someone spray-painted a graphic of the Eiffel Tower inside a circle on an outside wall of the mosque. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a news release that this act was the third recent incidence of vandalism at the center in Omaha.
The acts come two days after the terrorist attacks upon civilians in Paris, France, in which more than 150 were killed and hundreds more wounded.
In a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas, the Pflugerville Police Department said it received a call about 6:18 a.m. on Monday, November 16. A witness said he arrived at the center about 5:55 a.m. for morning prayer and discovered the desecrated Koran.
The witness told Pflugerville PD that there were no suspects and he did not know of anyone who had made threats to the center. No one had been at the Islamic Center since 10 p.m. the evening before.
There was no other physical damage to the facility and clean-up costs were estimated to be about $150 reported the witness.
The Pflugerville Police Department has classified the act as a hate crime and say that investigations are still ongoing.
The statement received by the Pflugerville Police Department was entitled “Criminal Mischief.” The crime in Texas for criminal mischief is a Class B misdemeanor if the amount of the pecuniary loss is $50 or more but less than $500.
Pflugerville is a suburb of the Texas cities of Austin and Round Rock.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as an associate judge and prosecutor. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2
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