2 Southern California mosques vandalised

Two mosques have been vandalised with paint in the US state of California in the latest in a series of episodes of arson at Muslim houses of worship in the past few days, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to open a hate crimes investigation.

Worshippers who arrived on Sunday morning at the Islamic Center of Hawthorne found the words ‘Jesus is the way’ spray-painted on the building, said Christopher Port, a spokesman for the Hawthorne Police Department, CBS news reported.

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. The object was found to be “a plastic replica”, 

Police and the FBI were investigating the vandalism on Saturday night as hate crimes. 

The vandalism in Hawthorne came two days after a person was was arrested in nearby Riverside County and charged with arson, hate crime and burglary after the police said he set fire to a mosque, the Islamic Society of Coachella Valley.