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Pellet rifle shots fired at mosque near Chicago

Shots fired from a pellet rifle damaged a mosque in a northern Chicago suburb, authorities said Saturday. No one was injured.

A Muslim civil liberties group said Saturday that the shots damaged an outer brick wall of the Muslim Education Center in Morton Grove on Friday night shortly after worshippers observing the holy month of Ramadan broke their daily fast.

Morton Grove Police Chief Mark Erickson said Saturday a security guard at the center heard a projectile hit an outside wall of the building at 9:20 p.m. Police were called, Erickson said, and the department began to investigate. The department is working with the Cook County State Attorney’s office, he said.

“This is obviously an alarming situation,” said Ahmed Rehab, director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “The weapon allegedly used in this incident is powerful enough to kill, and the projectiles reportedly came within inches of the head of the security guard on duty.”

The shots were heard by worshippers outside the center, which serves as both a mosque and a school.

“This is a school and a house of worship. … And we are being shot at,” said Mohammad Aleemuddin, president of the center. “Community members are terrified, especially children.”

The Muslim advocacy group said it believed the shots were fired by someone with a history of opposition to the mosque. It did not elaborate.

Erickson said police were told Friday night that windows at the mosque previously had been broken, but not reported.

The organization’s national headquarters issued a community safety advisory earlier in the week for American mosques after other incidents targeting Muslim houses of worship in Missouri and Rhode Island and after the deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Aug. 5.

In one of those incidents, a mosque in Joplin, Mo., previously targeted by an arsonist burned down. In Southern California, pig legs were left in the driveway of a house used as a place of worship pending construction of a mosque on the site in the city of Ontario — an offensive act because Muslims regard pigs as unclean.
Muslims in Chicago spoke out Friday against comments this week from U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh that they worried could help inspire attacks against mosques.

Walsh, a suburban Chicago Republican, told a town hall meeting on Wednesday that there are radical Muslims in the city’s suburbs and around the country “trying to kill Americans every week.”

SOURCE: USA TODAY

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