CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — After an act of vandalism took place during Ramadan prayers at the Downtown Islamic Center on Sunday, Chicago police investigators have said they're treating the case as a hate crime.
Video obtained by WBBM Newsradio shows a man following two women into the mosque, where he appears agitated and violently waves his arms at the worshippers. After he was asked to leave, the man returned with an object, which he used to smash the glass at the mosque entrance.
Maggie Slavin is the operations manager for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is headquartered in the Loop and is the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. Slavin said she first heard about the vandalism on Monday morning.
“I woke up this morning around 5:30, 6 o’clock,” she said. “My phone was buzzing constantly … I’m like, ‘What is going on?’”
Reading through some of the messages, she came across surveillance footage of the attack.
“This is moments after worshippers are going to pray taraweeh, a nightly prayer during the month of Ramadan,” she said. “It’s very important to Muslims in this holy month, so it was very, very scary for worshippers.”
Incidents like these, Slavin said, should be taken as serious threats to the Muslim community.
“People are more scared; people are on edge, understandably,” she said. “Since Oct. 7, here at CAIR-Chicago we’ve seen so many incidents of discrimination and bias. We’ve seen hate crimes happen with Wadea Al-Fayoume, of course, and then there was also the girl in Glendale Heights that was attacked.”
A particular detail from Sunday’s attack, though, has had Slavin in “a bit of a panic,” she said.
“He allegedly said, ‘You Muslims must die,’ which is the same exact thing that Joseph Schuba said to Hanaan Shahin before stabbing her and then stabbing Wadea Al-Fayoume to death in October 2023,” she said. “Those exact words.”
Slavin said Chicago police were cooperative and helpful in responding to the Downtown Islamic Center, though local Muslim leaders have claimed that there are disparities in the proactive police presence at mosques and synagogues during holy observance and times of conflict.
WBBM reached out to the Chicago Police Department and the Evanston Police Department for comment on those claims. Although CPD did not respond, EPD Spokesman Ryan Glew said they increase police presences at places of worship during high holidays for all faith-based communities. He said if a conflict in the Middle East prompts an increased police presence at a synagogue, there will also be an increase at mosques as “these events are typically a safety concern for both communities.”
Glew said the “appearance” of a disparity between police resources is likely in Evanston, where he said there are “significantly more synagogues.”
To better prepare members of their own community, Slavin said organizations like CAIR will often offer bystander intervention training. The goal isn’t to encourage individuals to place themselves in dangerous situations, but Slavin said even the act of recording incidents can be helpful.
“If you see someone being bullied — where it’s a low-stakes environment [or] nothing’s really going to happen to you if you say something — then you should say something,” she said. “You should say, ‘Cut it out’ … Even if it doesn’t make the bullying stop, at least that Muslim knows that you’re in their corner.”
Listen to our new podcast Looped In: Chicago
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | TikTok