Update: Cross-Burning at College Park Mosque Angers Community

July 25, 2003

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43415-2003Jul24?language=printer

On July 25, 2003 The Washington Post reported that "a three-foot-high wooden cross was set afire on a grassy knoll outside a Prince George's County mosque and Islamic school early yesterday in what authorities said was a hate crime... The cross, soaked with a flammable liquid, was pushed into the ground and ignited shortly before 2 a.m. in front of the Dar-us-Salaam mosque and Al-Huda school in College Park, said Fire Chief Ronald Blackwell. A videotape from a surveillance camera on the property shows at least two people carrying out the cross-burning, Blackwell said... The mosque said that it has about 400 members and that about 100 children and adults attend programs at the school... County Police Chief Melvin C. High said the police and fire departments are investigating the cross-burning as a hate crime. He declined to elaborate on the videotape or discuss other possible evidence in the case. Barry Maddox, an FBI spokesman in Baltimore, said federal agents are working with local authorities in the probe. He said the cross-burning was the first reported to authorities in Maryland in at least three years."