Vandalism disrupts worship at mosque

Worshippers arriving for afternoon prayers yesterday at a south central Nashville mosque found the ground outside littered by broken glass from front windows smashed by vandals.

While the men went inside to pray in the rear of the square white building that houses the Salahadeen Center of Nashville, the women walked away to find other places of worship. The place where the women normally pray, the building's rug-covered front room— an area separated from the men's area in the Muslim tradition — was littered with too much debris to pray there.

Police said the vandalism occurred about 1 a.m. yesterday at the mosque, 360 Elysian Fields Court.

Meran Abdullah's store, which connects to the mosque, also had a large front window smashed.

Taqwa Islamic Books and Gifts offers books, videos of readings of the Koran, and traditional Kurdish jewelry and clothing.

''This is what the American people did to us,'' Abdullah said as he scooped shattered glass from the ground with a dust pan.

''We're not trying to teach terrorism in this country. Islam is about preventing all these things. Our religion is against September 11.''

Metro police do not know if retaliation for terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., motivated the vandalism, but they are investigating it as a possible hate crime. Anyone convicted of the offense could face stiffer penalties than in the case of simple vandalism.

Officers with the south precinct also ''will be paying closer attention to the Salahadeen Center,'' said police spokesman Don Aaron. ''Since September 11, we have been monitoring religious establishments in the city to keep an eye on them.''

The mosque not only is a place of worship, it serves as a community center for funerals and weddings for many Kurds who found sanctuary in Nashville after fleeing northern Iraq in the early 1990s.

That's when Saddam Hussein dropped chemical bombs in Kurdish towns, killing residents and family members. In past interviews, members of the Kurdish community have said Nashville was an ideal location and was known for religious tolerance.

Members of the Salahadeen Center said there have been no threats since Sept. 11.

Some say they feel they were victims of a mistake, where perpetrators wrongly believed that the group might have ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network controlled by Osama bin Laden.

Trying to head off anti-Islamic sentiments following the Sept. 11 attacks, Nashville-area mosques have held open houses for the public and sent informal ambassadors to speak at area churches and universities.

''I think we were very proactive in going out to educate the public about the position of Muslims in the United States and certainly in Nashville, to make the public understand that we are a community that seeks peaceful coexistence and that Islam should not be interpreted as the perpetrator of this tragedy,'' said Dr. Awadh Binhazim, a spokesman for Islamic Center of Nashville.

In the past few weeks, though, police have investigated two local crimes that victims say were directed against them because of their Middle Eastern ethnicity.

In the first, two cars belonging to an Iraqi immigrant were torched outside his Antioch home.

Police also are searching for three men who attacked two downtown business owners of Jordanian origin earlier this month.

As Muslim leaders learned about the window-smashing incident at the Nolensville Road-area mosque yesterday, several said they intend to increase security around their own mosques.

Already, volunteers patrol the parking lot and grounds around the Al-Farooq center during prayer services, said Imam Abdishakur Ibrahim. About 130 people, mostly Somali Muslims, attend services at the east Nashville mosque, he said.

At the Islamic Center of Nashville on 12th Avenue South, a member said they also have security, especially during events that involve children.