Leaders call for hate crime probe after intruder damages Loop mosque saying offensive statements

CHICAGO - An intruder burst into a Loop mosque and blurted offensive statements to congregants during nightly prayers Sunday, police and shaken mosque leaders said.

Just before nightly prayers for Ramadan around 8 p.m., a man approached the mosque, 213 S. State St., and tried to kick in the door before breaking through the glass with an object, police and mosque spokesperson Salman Azam said.

Azam said the man said offensive things to people praying, such as "Muslims should die." Azam asked authorities to investigate the incident as a hate crime, but it’s unclear whether police have classified the incident as such.

Hate crimes against Muslims have increased in the area since the onset of the war in Gaza last fall, ranging in severity from vandalism and derogatory language to the killing of a Palestinian-American boy in Plainfield.

The uptick in Islamophobia has shaken the Muslim community, Azam said, and the mosque should have been a "safe space" for the community to gather and pray.

"Heading into the month of Ramadan, the holy month, they were looking for peace and serenity," he said. "Seeing what transpired last night justifiably frightened them. … People shouldn’t be afraid to come to houses of worship."

The mosque is working with Chicago police and the Council on American-Islamic Relations and has hired private security in the wake of the crime.

No one has been arrested and Area 3 detectives are investigating.