Villa Park mosque's property damaged

Islamic Foundation in Villa Park has been a victim of vandalism four times in the last couple of months, with the most recent incident occurring this week, officials said.

When an employee opened the building on Wednesday morning, he discovered that a 5-gallon tank of flammable liquid had been spilled on the floor of a school addition that's under construction, the mosque's Imam Abdur Rahman Khan said Friday. A couple windows were found broken in the school building, and bricks had been thrown at the structure's doors, he said.

About two weeks ago, officials found a Jewish Star of David on a wall in the mosque's basement. And a couple times in late August, leaders found hateful messages and symbols spray-painted on the mosque's trailers.

At the beginning of the school year, three other windows also were broken.

"Damaging of a property, to me, is showing us anger at its highest point," Khan said. "It is a bigoted expression when you start to damage people's property."

Mosque leaders hope law enforcement officials will find the people responsible and bring them to justice.

Villa Park police Lt. Mike Lay said the incident is being investigated as criminal damage to property.

"Just like we do in any case, if there's certain areas of town that are damaged or acts occur, we always advise our officers to keep an extra watch in those areas," Lay said.

Khan said the Islamic Foundation has always had open dialogues with the community, and has always opened its doors to interfaith programs, senators, congressmen, mayors, police, students, rabbis and priests.

"We are surprised and worried," Khan said. "Why would someone come and harm us despite our openness to the community?"