ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (WWJ) -- Authorities are still searching for the suspect who vandalized a mosque in Rochester Hills Friday night.
Officials with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Detroit discovered Saturday morning someone had deliberately smashed the glass front door of the mosque near Crooks and Auburn, and leaders are left wondering why.
While the damage was discovered Saturday morning, surveillance video shows someone using a tool, possibly a hammer, to smash the glass Friday, even as children played inside following evening prayers.
The surveillance footage was turned over to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office for an investigation. No description of the suspect has been released, but the sheriff's office said late Sunday afternoon via press release that surveillance video shows the suspect heading in the direction of the broken door.
The sheriff's office also noted a nearby Walgreen's also had a window broken out in the same time frame. Authorities did not say whether they believed the incidents were connected.
No one was injured in the incident, but the Imam says the community is shaken. Imam Sham-shad Nasir and other members of the mosque are just searching for answers as to why this happened.
“We don’t know. We want to know what was the intention,” he said. “If (the suspect) has some misunderstanding about islamic teaching, we can talk with him, we can have dialogue with him, we can sit with him, we can ask him about his doubts and whatever. But we don’t know the intention of the person at all.”
Imam Nasir says he's willing to break bread with the suspect.
"You know, we don't hate anyone. Because our slogan is 'love for all, and hatred for none,'" he told WWJ. "We don't hate anyone and we want to show our love for humanity as a whole."
Authorities say it doesn’t appear anything was taken from the building, but they still don’t know who or what was behind the incident.
A mosque in Flint was also vandalized last month, while the city of Warren saw a similar incident last year.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is also investigating after a glass door was found to be smashed at a mosque in Rochester Hills. Authorities say a window was also broken at a nearby Walgreen's. It was not immediately clear if any of the incidents were related.
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