Source: Northwest Indiana News
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2006/07/08/news/top_news/7f9b044656dffafd862571a400827204.txt
On July 8, 2006 NWTimes reported, "Muslim-American leaders of the Michigan City Islamic Center say that $8,600 in recent criminal mischief damage to their mosque was a 'systematic hate crime.' 'People here are shocked. It looks more like someone sending a message than random vandalism by bored teenagers,' said Abraham Hakim, the center's president and a third-generation American... Hakim, whose family has lived in the Michigan City area for decades, cites the fact that all 10 windows were shot only once, costing the most money to replace. Thrill-seeking teenage vandals wouldn't be so methodical, he figured. Muslim-American converts Greg and Alice Fulmer, a Maryland couple who visit many mosques while vacationing across the country, say this is nothing new in their travels. A random rock through a back window can cause the same feelings of fear and intimidation as aimed bullet holes through a front door, they said... 'I'll bet at least one mosque is vandalized every day in this country,' [Greg said.] On Sunday, Porter County police received a report of bullets shot into the center's copper dome, leaving six large and obvious holes. Also, two glass doors, 10 windows, a sign and a spotlight were vandalized, possibly by a BB gun, police reported. The 16-acre center is the first chartered Islamic center in the country, serving local Muslims since 1924, and Hakim has documentation to prove it, he said. Yet there had been no hate-crime vandalism there in the past decade, even since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he said. Samer Agemy, who is on the board of directors and is groundskeeper there, told police a sign also had a swastika carved into it, but the responding officer said he could not make out that symbol through the scratch marks. The letters 'KKK' are clearly yet crudely scratched into the sign."