Islamic Slogans Spray-Painted Onto Three Indiana Churches

Islamic Slogans Spray-Painted Onto Three Indiana Churches September 1, 2014

QuranVandals spray-painted “Infidels” and verses from the Koran on three churches in Columbus, Indiana this weekend.

The graffiti was discovered by church employees on Sunday morning.  Churches which had been vandalized included St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in central Columbus, Lakeview Church of Christ on the north side, and East Columbus Christian Church on the east side.

At Saint Bartholomew’s, the graffiti read, “Infidels!” and included a reference to the Koran: “Qur’an 3:151.”  That verse can be translated:

“We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.”

Father Doug Marcotte, associate pastor at St. Bartholomew’s, expressed concern about the negative message.  “It’s certainly not a warm and fuzzy verse,” he told WTHR-TV.  “It’s upsetting to people, certainly because we have a beautiful church, but also because what is the message if there is a message? Because, there’s just not a whole lot to go on.”

Meanwhile Nassim Khaled, a Muslim resident of Columbus who volunteers at the Islamic Center, talked about the vandalism with Fox59.  “We condemn this,” he said,

“…and I read the verse, most importantly what that showed me is the ignorance who actually misquoted or misinterpreted the Quran.” 

Khaled meet with members of the East Columbus Christian Church to “show togetherness.”  He and others from the Islamic Center, he says, “show our support, we actually want to come and clean this mess with our friends and neighbors of the church.” 

Khaled said that reading the verses that were spray painted on the buildings, alone, they can sound scary.  In his eyes, they’re actually far from that.

According to the Indy Star, police are treating the three incidents as suspected acts of vandalism–not as a hate crime.  Columbus Police spokesperson Sergeant Matt Harris said, “We encourage people to let us investigate this before jumping to any conclusions.  It’s early on — we just don’t know.”

 


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