Hate crime investigation sought into Iowa mosque vandalism

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A national Muslim civil rights group is calling for state and federal hate crime investigations into the vandalism of a northeastern Iowa mosque captured on the building’s security cameras. The video shows what appears to be a middle-aged woman vandalizing the Al-Noor Islamic Community Center in Waterloo on the evening of Dec. 28. The Courier reports that the woman first used snow to draw crosses — a widely recognized Christian symbol — on the mosque’s windows before graduating to scrawling profanities aimed at Islam and Muslims on the mosque’s walls using some type of oil-based substance. On Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement calling for local, state and federal authorities to launch their own hate crime investigations into the vandalism.