Update: Villa Park Mosque Vandalized

March 27, 2003

Source: Chicago Tribune

On March 27, 2003 the Chicago Tribune reported that "two teenagers were charged Monday with using an aluminum baseball bat to damage a window of a Villa Park mosque earlier this month, an act authorities are calling a hate crime... Villa Park police said the youths--a 15-year-old from Villa Park and a 16-year-old from Lombard--are charged in juvenile petitions with a hate crime and criminal damage to property at a place of worship. A third juvenile from Lombard was not charged... If convicted, a juvenile defendant faces penalties ranging from probation to a prison sentence ending with his or her 21st birthday... The incident March 11 at the Islamic Foundation Mosque... disturbed about 150 people finishing evening prayers inside and made mosque officials fearful of more Islamic-targeted crimes as the U.S. war with Iraq continued."