In the early morning hours of October 25, 2013, vandals came under cover of darkness to desecrate the Islamic Society of Delaware (ISD) in Newark, the largest and most prominent mosque in the state. The alleged perpetrators destroyed a wooden fence and severely damaged an electronic sign. Damage is in the thousands of dollars. Most shockingly, the alleged culprits also fashioned the debris into a cross (Christianity’s sacred symbol for the “Prince of Peace”), thus insulting both Islam and Christianity.
CAIR-Philadelphia immediately issued a Press Release condemning the attack and “urged local, state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate this attack as a possible hate crime.” The Press Release went on to declare that the “unfortunately growing promotion of Islamophobia in our society leads to such troubling incidents.”
At noon on Monday, Oct. 28, an interfaith press conference, organized by CAIR-Philadelphia for the ISD, was held in front of the mosque. Covering the event were camera crews from local ABC, CBS, NBS, and Fox affiliate stations, in addition to print media reporters.
Speakers included Jacob Bender, CAIR-Philadelphia’s new Executive Director; Mahamed Allimulla, President of the ISD; Sister B.J. Brown, Director of the Interfaith Resource Center of Wilmington, DE; and Jeanne Swartz of the Philadelphia Interfaith Walk for Peace and Reconciliation.
In his statement read at the press conference, Jacob stated:
This attack is tragically far from unique in the often sad story of our country. We stand here today in memory of the another attack on an American house of worship, this one on a church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four little Black girls in 1963. We stand here today in memory of the many American synagogues that were vandalized across the United States during the 1930s and 40s, many desecrated by swastikas. And we stand here today to recall those millions of Catholic immigrants who migrated to these shores in the 19th and 20th centuries, only to face the prejudice that today almost exactly mirrors the false accusations hurled against American Muslims: that Catholicism (like Islam) is incompatible with democracy and modernity, and that Catholics (like Muslims) owe their allegiance to a foreign cult, not to the laws of their adopted land.
Finally, Monday night, an “Interfaith Solidarity Vigil” was held in the ISD Social Hall, attended by over 100 individuals, including representatives of the Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Sikh communities, as well as elected and government officials and law enforcement personnel. Addressing the gathering, in addition to Jacob, were U.S. Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware, Delaware Lt. Governor Matt Den, the head of the local FBI office, a rabbi and several Christian ministers.
Many speakers remarked upon the ironic fact that the alleged perpetrators, their hearts filled with hatred, had unintentionally managed to unite the local community in an outpouring of interfaith solidarity. As an expression of this spirit, the nearby Westminster Presbyterian Church donated $1,000 to ISD to help repair the damage caused by the attack.
