The attacks on mosques in the UK have continued just as a man has been arrested following an attack on a mosque in County Down in Northern Ireland.
The mosque on Greenwell Street in Newtownards was attacked in the early hours of Saturday.
Report said that the Police investigating the incident arrested a 42-year-old man on Sunday following searches at two properties in Newtownards.
He was arrested on suspicion of a number of offences including attempted arson, possessing a petrol bomb, and attempted intimidation.
About 42 percent of mosques or Islamic institutions in a newly released UK report have experienced religiously motivated attacks in the last three years.
The survey, the first of its kind, was jointly carried out by two British Muslim organisations – Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) and Muslim Census.
It said that the most common form of attack experienced by mosques and other Islamic institutions was vandalism, followed by burglary or theft (34 percent), with 83 percent being attacked at least once a year.
It also suggested that nearly 17 percent of mosques have faced physical abuse directed at staff or worshippers, with one mosque reporting that a religious cleric was stabbed outside the front entrance.
Mosques officials described receiving threats of physical violence on popular social media platforms and general abuse.
In the report, they have expressed their frustrations and how increased Islamophobia hate crimes are taking toll on their wellbeing.
“We have witnessed individuals breaking windows, vandalising worshipers’ vehicles, and spraying racist graffiti on the mosque building,” an unidentified mosque official was quoted by the report as saying.
Nearly two-thirds of the 113 mosques who participated in the survey reported that the attacks harmed the wider community, with 9 percent reporting that their mosques or Islamic institutions were targeted frequently, at least every three months.
The report indicated that 15 percent of mosques saw an increase in attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toufik Kacimi, the imam of Sainsbury Park mosque in north London, told Al Jazeera that religiously motivated attacks have increased over the years, with the latest incident happening weeks ago when a member of the public hurled dog faeces into the mosque.
“Just last Ramadan, one man punctured six cars belonging to worshipers; we also received threats phone calls and hatred letters,” he said.
Kacimi also said that some of the attackers pretend to be Muslim to gain access to the mosque and steal money and mobile phones from the donation box and people’s jackets.
“We can say that hate crimes against Muslims have sharply increased in the last three years, and it’s costing us more money; we have hired four security guards and deployed more CCTV cameras in the mosque premise and it’s a huge financial burden to us,” he said.
