Feds charge New Jersey man with hate crime
SOMERVILLE, N.J. — A New Jersey man was charged with a federal hate crime for breaking into the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University during the Eid-al-Fitr holiday and causing about $40,000 in damages, the Department of Justice has announced.
Jacob Beacher, who is not affiliated with Rutgers, was arrested and charged on Monday with one count of intentional or attempted obstruction of religious practice and one count of making false statements to federal authorities, the Justice Department said.
Rutgers University police who responded to the incident in the early hours of April 10 found smashed windows, broken printers, wrecked artwork and plaques with Quranic verses, and a Palestinian flag ripped off the pole in the front lobby, according to Chaplain Kaiser Aslam. The Justice Department alleged Beacher, 24, stole a Palestinian flag and charity box that belonged to the center.
The building was vandalized on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, or the “festival of breaking the fast,” a three-day holiday in Islam that follows the fasting month of Ramadan.
“The community is shaken because it’s our home on campus,” Aslam said after the incident. “It’s a safe space for many of our students.”
An affidavit filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in federal court says that surveillance video showed Beacher walking toward the rear door of the Center for Islamic Life at about 2:41 a.m. on April 10. He then allegedly broke a glass pane on the door to reach through and unlatch a deadbolt lock, the affidavit says.
Based on a review of all the video surveillance in the area, Beacher was the only person seen in the vicinity of the Center for Islamic Life between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m., the affidavit says.
On April 14, two people reported finding a donation box belonging to the Center for Islamic Life on the east side of Buccleuch Park, the affidavit says, and a trace of Beacher’s cell-site data found that his cellphone had been on the east side of Buccleuch Park shortly after the break-in.
Beacher admitted he was the person in the video surveillance but denied breaking into the center, according to the affidavit.
The investigation is ongoing with additional charges pending, according to university police.
The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Rutgers administrators to act with urgency to protect Muslim, Palestinian and allied students, who it says “are facing an upsurge in bigoted attacks, especially as they advocate for Palestinian liberation.”
Islamophobic incidents have reached record levels in recent months, according to CAIR. The civil rights advocacy group said it received more than 8,000 complaints in 2023 – the highest in its 30-year history – and nearly half of the complaints came in the final three months of the year.
In CAIR’s 2023 report, the organization said the “primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023.”
Contributing: Krystal Nurse, USA TODAY; Hannan Adely, Bergen Record