Man charged after Ontario St. mosque vandalized
Windows broken and garbage from street tossed through shattered door
A 26-year-old man was charged with causing mischief to a house of worship Tuesday after an Ontario St. mosque was vandalized earlier in the day.
The incident occurred at about 3:40 a.m. Police received a 911 call that an individual was damaging the Tawuba mosque’s front door. Police found broken windows at the front and side of the mosque.
Using a description provided by witnesses, police quickly arrested a suspect.
The damage to the mosque, which is little more than a boutique-sized prayer room, scattered shards of glass across its floor and saw garbage from the street tossed through the shattered door.
“I’m surprised by this,” said Mohammad Nurul Islam, who was among the 10 or so worshippers who came to the mosque for morning prayers. “Nothing like this should happen to any place (of worship). Buddhist, Hindu, any place of religion should be respected . ... I am a little bit worried. That garbage is from off the street. I just hope no one was trying to start a fire.”
Islam noted that Tuesday morning’s vandalism wasn’t the first time the mosque had been targeted.
He said that two or three years ago, someone had tried to light a fire in the alleyway alongside the building, while in a separate incident, a window on the street side of the mosque had been hit hard enough to be cracked.
Shah Mohammad Alam said he came to the mosque on Tuesday to find police on the scene and was told they had made an arrest.
“We pray that this kind of thing doesn’t happen anywhere in the world.”
This incident follows a similar one Feb. 2, when the Khadijah mosque in Point-St-Charles was hit by vandalism.
A 50-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to one count of public mischief and is currently undergoing a psychiatric examination.