BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- The FBI is investigating an apparent arson at a mosque in Bloomington as a possible hate crime, an agency spokeswoman said.
A burned Quran was found outside the mosque, said Nathan Ainslie, president of the Islamic Center of Bloomington.
No one was inside the mosque when the fire occurred about 2 a.m. Saturday, he said. A passerby noticed the blaze and the fire was extinguished before doing any major damage. Damage was confined to the kitchen area, said Ainslie.
FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne said FBI agents and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force were investigating the incident as a hate crime.
''The FBI takes hate crimes and acts of violence very seriously,'' she said in a phone interview.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the timing of the fire was ''suspicious'' following so soon after Thursday's bombings in London that killed at least 49 people.
The Plainfield-based Islamic Center of North America issued a statement Thursday condemning the London bombings. Hooper said his group, based in Washington, had received hate e-mail and phone calls since Thursday.
Osborne declined to speculate whether the attack might have related to the events in London, and Ainslie said he was not sure.
''Whether somebody was angry over those attacks and decided to take it out on us, we don't know,'' Ainslie said.
The mosque had not received any threats, and Ainslie said its 200-plus members generally have a good relationship with the Bloomington community, which is home to Indiana University's main campus.
He said the mosque was planning a meeting of its members Saturday to discuss the proper response to the arson, and likely would hold an open house in about two weeks.
Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, said this was a time for people of various faiths to come together, as he was certain they would.
''This kind of action here in America, it only reinforces our collective commitment to maintain our solidarity and understanding,'' he said.
Hooper said the council also was investigating reports that an Islamic prayer area in a Houston medical center was defaced on Friday.
Hate crimes against Muslims rose 52 percent to 141 last year compared with 2003, and civil rights violations reported to the council jumped 49 percent to 1,522, the group said in a report released in May.
