Members of Rhode Island’s Muslim community have asked to meet with police and the FBI to request heightened security at their places of worship after the sign for a mosque in North Smithfield was vandalized.
Farid Ansari, president of the Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement and an imam at the Muslim American Dawah Center of Rhode Island in Providence, said Tuesday they are concerned because of the fatal attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Sunday and a suspicious fire at a mosque in Missouri on Monday.
“Hopefully, it’s just a simple case of vandalism, but we can’t be sure. Of particular concern is what happened within the Sikh community,” Ansari said. “We can’t just not pay attention to these types of things. We don’t know if they are connected or not.”
The incident at the Masjid Al-Islam happened early Sunday morning. Surveillance video showed a person walk up to the mosque’s sign, struggle with it then knock down a large piece of it, put it into a car and drive away, said North Smithfield Police Capt. Tim Lafferty. The vandalism was first reported by The Providence Journal.
