A mosque in Ohio was attacked for the third time. Members doubt Trump’s FBI will call it a hate crime
Latest attack happened amid Islamophobic blowback against Arab and Muslim Americans running for office Nashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August. “They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray,” says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the…
On 3 August, for the third time in seven years, a mosque in Ohio was attacked by assailants who broke in using wire cutters and smashed windows. The Westwood Islamic Community Center, located in an underserved, majority-Black neighborhood in west Cincinnati, suffered damage to its office, valuables were stolen, and profanity was written on a whiteboard.
The incident occurred amidst a rise in Islamophobia following Arab and Muslim Americans running for office and shockingly Islamophobic comments from Republican politicians and far-right figures. Trump himself has fueled the backlash, stating that "we have jihadists being elected all over the place." In March, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported an unprecedented rise in the number of Islamophobic incidents and discrimination nationwide last year.
Despite the police's presence on the scene, no suspects have been apprehended, and local leaders express little trust in federal law enforcement to help. Muslim leaders assert that the attack is identity-motivated, and therefore, by definition, a hate crime.
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