الولايات المتحدة: اعتداءات عنصرية على مقابر أسرة مسلمة للمرة السادسة

- خبر من مصادر إنجليزية.

أعرب مجلس المنظمات الإسلامية بولاية "شيكاغو" الأمريكية عن استنكاه لتعرض مقبرة تابعة لأسرة مسلمة من أصول أردنية للاعتداء والتدنيس؛ حيث أكد البيان تعرُّض العديد من المقابر الإسلامية للاعتداءات في الفترة الأخيرة.

ويأتي هذا الاستنكار بعد تعرُّض مقبرة أسرة دبلوماسي أردني للاعتداء 6 مرات خلال فترة الـ17 شهرًا الماضية، وقد عثر رجال الشرطة على عبارات مسيئة للمسلمين فوق بقايا حجارة القبر المحطمة. المصدر: شبكة الألوكة.

يرجى الإشارة إلى المصدر عند نقل الخبر – شبكة الألوكة.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Muslim's grave vandalized a 6th time

Hassan Mustafa Hassan Abdallah is one of hundreds of Muslims buried alongside people of other faiths in Evergreen Cemetery.

But the Jordanian diplomat's grave is the only one that has been repeatedly targeted by vandals, and neither police nor his family knows why.

Abdallah's grave was vandalized for the sixth time in the last 17 months last week, even though he died more than a decade ago, Evergreen Park police said.

Cemetery employees called police Thursday after they found anti-Muslim words and gang symbols scrawled on a headstone, a bench and a concrete slab at his grave, police Lt. Pete Donovan said. Anti-gay slogans were also visible on the grave Friday morning as a worker tried to remove the graffiti.

Police suspect the same person or group is responsible, although they're not sure of the motive, Donovan said.

"I can't speculate," he said. "I don't know if they're doing it because of race or if maybe there was some connection (with Abdallah). Hopefully, that will come out in the investigation when we find this person."

Abdallah's widow said she thinks that the vandalism is a hate crime and that her husband's grave has been targeted because it's one of the biggest in the cemetery.

"I feel certain that it has nothing to do with him individually," said the woman, who spoke on the condition that her name not be published. "It's just hate crimes against Muslims."

Abdallah was born in 1926 outside Jerusalem and moved to the Chicago area in the late 1940s, his widow said. He served as Jordan's consul general in Chicago for about 17 years and died in 1999 at age 73, she said.

"He was a fabulous person and loved by everyone," his widow said. "He was a man of peace. I don't think (the graffiti) has anything to do with him in particular."

Donovan said it appeared as if the graffiti had been written with a black marker. Black markers and charcoal have been used in past incidents, he said.

The first incident was reported in March 2011, Donovan said. Three more incidents were reported last year, plus another one earlier this year, he said.

A cemetery spokeswoman said the latest vandalism probably occurred Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Although graffiti on the grave in the past was removed with cleaning solutions, the new graffiti will likely have to be sandblasted because the writing seems to be more permanent, she said.

Orland Park resident Charlie Khalil stopped by the cemetery on his way to work Friday morning to make sure the graves of his mother and several other relatives hadn't been vandalized. He said he doesn't know of any other problems at the cemetery, where Muslims have been buried for decades.

"I don't know what's going on," said Khalil, 44. "We're not bad people. We're just regular people. I don't know why people do this stuff. … It's just ignorant people."

Abdallah's widow said she hopes the vandalism isn't taken lightly.

"I'm hoping that the cemetery will do something because my fear is that there's a deranged mind at loose in the community," she said. "A person who could repeatedly do this kind of thing may harm an individual in some way, some innocent family member who is visiting their loved one's grave."

The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago issued a news release saying "a number of graves" had been desecrated, but Donovan said Abdallah's is the only one that was vandalized.