At approximately 12pm on Sunday, 28th August, the sign for Mankato Islamic Center in Mankato, Minnesota, was vandalized by a man who damaged and replaced the sign at the front of the mosque with a 'for lease' message.
The incident was caught by the Mosques surveillance camera and shows a shirtless man wearing a hat, walking with a large white sign under his arm. It takes the man around 3-4 minutes to remove the old sign, which reads 'Mankato Islamic Centre'. As he removes the mosques name from the sign he damages the board, he then loosely places the new 'for lease' sign as he casually walks away from the mosque.
The vandal damaged the mosque sign whilst there were children attending Sunday classes inside.
Mankato Free Press spoke to a founding member of the mosque, Abdi Sabrie, who stated that the financial loss the mosque takes to replace the sign is not the issue but tackling hatred motivating the vandal is the main problem.
Sabrie told the press that he'd be happy to welcome members of the community inside the mosque to learn more about the Islamic faith and the services the mosque provides, he states, "We're really not vindictive … we want him to come get to know us and understand us,"
Mankato police are asking for any witnesses to come forth and provide any information on the incident to help resolve the issue.