15 December,2015 06:17 AM IST | | Agencies
Two mosques have been vandalised with paint in California in the latest in a series of episodes of arson at mosques in the past few days, prompting the FBI to open a hate crimes investigation
'Jesus' spray-painted on the outer wall of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque in Hawthorne
Los Angeles: Two mosques have been vandalised with paint in California in the latest in a series of episodes of arson at mosques in the past few days, prompting the FBI to open a hate crimes investigation.
'Jesus' spray-painted on the outer wall of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque in Hawthorne
Worshippers who arrived on Sunday morning at the Islamic Center of Hawthorne found the words âJesus is the way' spray-painted on the building, said Christopher Port, a spokesman for the Hawthorne Police.
The word "Jesus" was also spray-painted in white on an outer wall of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Baitus-Salaam Mosque in Hawthorne, he said, adding an object resembling a hand grenade was found in its driveway.
After arrest
The vandalism came two days after a person was arrested in nearby Riverside County and charged with arson, hate crime and burglary for setting fire to a mosque, the Islamic Society of Coachella Valley.
The mosque is about 75 miles from San Bernardino, where a Pakistani-origin couple opened indiscriminate firing on fire December 2 at a holiday luncheon and killed 14 people.
Earlier case
Two days before the fire in Coachella, the police in Buena Park, California, opened a hate crimes investigation after a Sikh temple was vandalised.
