Texas Public Broadcasting reports on ongoing additional harassment against children at the Arlington, Texas Dar El-Eman Islamic Center mosque, where Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) reported previous vandalism and arson attacks over the past two weeks.
R.E.A.L. reported of how vandals wrote vulgar graffiti about “Allah” and how vandals burned down the children’s playground at the Arlington, Texas mosque. The Arlington, Texas police and FBI are still investigating the attacks, and have not yet determined the attacks as hate crimes.
Texas: Burned Children's Playground at Arlington Mosque (Photo: Arlington, Texas Police Department)
The Arlington, Texas police and mosque leaders met on August 4 to discuss the continuing harassment against worshipers.
In an interview with KERA Public Broadcasting, one of the children reported of how worshipers and children are being harassed at night and at the mosque, with one child telling KERA “It happened yesterday! They came, drove by and started um… Cussing us out a lot… Started cussing, and then they drove away.”
One of the mosque’s teachers, Fidaa Elaydi, tells KERA Public Broadcasting that: “A lot of people that come in the evenings, they say that people yell at them at night after the evening prayers and they still get bothered a lot at the mosque… I’m thinking when I come at night for Ramadan, I’m probably not going to go outside by myself at all. And we’re probably going to do something inside for the kids so that they don’t have to be outside either. So, you know, this time that is the most special time of the year for us is going to be a time filled with fear, and we’re not going to feel safe in our own place of worship.”
The Islamic center’s director, Jamal Qaddura, told KERA Public Broadcasting that: “When somebody draws pictures of Uncle Sam having sex with Allah, that just shows how sick that person is and to the extent how much that person carry hate against the American Muslims and against our own faith. This is placing fear in the hearts of American Muslims not to come and pray. And this is something very terrible. That’s terrorism.”
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Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our universal human rights to freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience for all people of all faiths, including the freedom of religion supported under Article 1 of the United States Constitution. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
We urge those who promote hate and intolerance to unburden the hate from their hearts.
We urge all to Choose Love, Not Hate. Love Wins.