Hate Attack Remembered

It's almost two years now since the attack on the mosque in Cherrywood (previously the public school), and I don't know that there was ever any culprit's arrested.

It's unfortunate how an act of total disregard for others rights and beliefs will shed the same light on all of us. I am not sure what would motivate an individual to perform such an act, but they don't speak for me. I am appalled that an act like this can happen right here in Canada.

I wonder some time if religion is meant to pull us together, or apart. . .

Mar 26, 2004 - Toronto Star

By: Frank Calleja

Hate attack saddens mosque. Vandals damage Pickering site.

Hamlet `shocked and outraged'

A Pickering mosque held its evening services as usual yesterday, saddened but undetermined by vandals who ignited a fire and spray-painted "Jesus Rules" on an outside wall during the night.

"I think this is a hate crime and our hope is that the police will fully investigate it as such and not (as) a random act by vandals," said Ahsan Butt, president of the 250-member Al-Mahdi Islamic Centre in the hamlet of Cherrywood.

"We are grieved by this, but we know it is not likely the work of anyone in this community, which we've belonged to since 1994," said Syed Mazhar of Markham, joint secretary of the mosque, which is affiliated with The Council of Islamic Guidance. Mazhar said it is the first such incident at the mosque.

Vandals lit a fire and spray-painted "Jesus Rules" in yellow paint on a coat rack outside the canopied women's entrance. Firefighters arrived shortly before 3 a.m. after a caretaker at the mosque called 911.

Damage was estimated at about $5,000, all of it to the exterior of the one-storey, flat-roofed building on the 3rd Concession, just west of White's Rd.

Durham Region police spokesperson Sergeant Paul Mallick said investigators will try to determine if it was random vandalism, a racist act or the work of a copycat mimicking vandals in Toronto and York Region who recently toppled Jewish gravestones, broke synagogue windows and defaced homes with swastikas and graffiti.

Those incidents prompted a huge outcry and an anti-hate rally attended by more than 2,500 people Wednesday night.

The Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario Region yesterday condemned the vandalism at the mosque. "After the enormous show of community support last night at our rally against anti-Semitism and hate ... we are both saddened and outraged by this attack," said chair Ed Morgan in a release.

"We want the Islamic community to be assured that we understand the terrible heartache this causes the community."

Lillian MacLennan, of the nearby Cherrywood General Store, said the mosques members "have been wonderful and have become part of this community ... everybody in this community is shocked and outraged by (this incident).

"Such things may happen in the city, but out in the country, in a quiet, out-of-the-way place like this, it's unheard of."

Mazhar was particularly saddened that the graffitti invoked the name of Jesus, "who is revered as a prophet by Islam.

"I think this was a hit-and-run incident by somebody who is from outside the community," he said.

"Those words cause great sadness for us and the community at large," said Butt. "All hate crimes, no matter who the target is, must be fully investigated by police and we stand in support of those who fight diligently against hate crimes of all kinds."

The mosque serves Shiite Muslims living in Scarborough, Markham and Pickering and holds daily evening services.