Vandals Graffiti 'Qur'an' and 'Infidels' on Columbus Churches; Community Confused by Attacks
Three Columbus, Indiana churches were recently vandalized by graffiti messages that read "Qur'an" and "Infidels!."
Some of the vandalism even involved specific chapters and verses of the Islamic Holy Book being written on the walls of the house of worship. Members of the Islamic religion and the rest of the community have spoken out against the recent attacks.
One of the churches vandalized was St. Bartholomew Catholic Church.
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"It's upsetting to people, certainly because we have a beautiful church, but also because what is the message if there is a message? Because there's just not a whole lot to go on," said Father Doug Marcotte, Associate Pastor for the church to Fox59 News.
The priest believes his church was vandalized between Saturday night and before Sunday services began. It is unclear to Fr. Marcotte as to why "infidels" and "Qur'an" were used by the vandal. 'Infidels' was also recently found on the front of Lakeview Church of Christ in Columbus.
East Columbus Christian Church underwent similar vandalism with specific verses "Qur'an 19:88" and "infidels" being found in two spots. An Islamic member of the community discussed the reference left by the vandal with Fox59.
"We condemn this, and I read the verse, most importantly what that showed me is the ignorance who actually misquoted or misinterpreted the Quran," said Nassim Khaled, a Columbus resident who volunteers as the Islamic Center.
Khaled met with members of the East Columbus Christian Church in order to quell some of the outrage that could have been aimed at the Muslim community after the vandalism occured.
"We show our support," he said. "We actually want to come and clean this mess with our friends and neighbors of the church," he said.
Police are currently investigating the incidents.
