Photo: Hussiania Mosque and Community Centre in Small Heath, Birmingham vandalized
(Credit: Mir Akhbar Ali)
Ahmed J Versi
Hussiania Mosque and Community Centre in Birmingham has been vandalised with graffiti.
The incident took place overnight on March 15 after the mosque closure due to coronavirus concerns.
The attacker(s) scribbled ‘CIVIL DISOBEDE [sic]’ ‘GODS I PM 4 NCE’ and elsewhere on another wall, ‘DISOBEY.’ One of the worshippers told The Muslim News that he thought the graffiti implied the mosque is disobeying the Government by keeping it open even though the mosque was already closed due to health and safety for the worshippers on coronavirus concerns. ‘God is punishing man.’
“It is disappointing at the vandalism on the mosque. Vandalism is wrong if it is done on any place. It is a nuisance and will cost a lot of money to rub off the graffiti. It is the first time that this has happened,” Dilshad Abbas, Trustee of the mosque, told The Muslim News.
Abbas added that he didn’t know what it was meant by ‘civil disobede’ as they had closed the mosque before the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had told to do so. “It is not that we are not heeding to the Government advice as the mosque is already closed. We don’t know what to make of this.”
The trustee said they “do not have any information on who was responsible for the graffiti. We don’t know what was the contributory factor for the attack.”
“We are investigating criminal damage to a mosque in Birmingham after graffiti was sprayed on an outside wall,” Spokesperson from West Midlands Police told The Muslim News. No one has been apprehended.