Northwest Philadelphia mosque vandalized with graffiti; civil rights group calls for investigation

For the better part of a century, one Northwest Philadelphia building has demonstrated how faiths coexist in peace. The Masjidullah Center for Human Excellence started as a synagogue and became a church before reopening as one of the largest mosques in the region.

On Friday, it was the site of a possible hate crime.

Civil rights activists are calling for an investigation after security cameras captured a man spray-painting “Jesus Christ” and other symbols on the doors of the center, a hub for the Muslim community in Cedarbrook.

The Feb. 24 vandalism is the second reported such act in recent years at the mosque, which is at Limekiln Pike and Washington Lane. According to Ahmet Tekelioglu, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Philadelphia chapter, it joins a growing list of anti-Islamic episodes in Pennsylvania in the last decade.

“It shakes one; it’s disturbing,” Tekelioglu said. “Everybody deserves to be able to pray and enjoy their community in safety.”

The Masjidullah Center for Human Excellence houses a mosque, school, and community and business center, and is known to host faith events of as many as 500 people, according to Tekelioglu.

Images posted to the mosque’s Instagram show “Jesus Christ” spray-painted several times on the facility’s doors. Another wall was vandalized with a Star of David with an “X” drawn over it, among other symbols.

The mosque also provided a still image of a man in a black sweatshirt and green hat captured on security footage.

Tekelioglu and mosque officials urged Philadelphia police to apprehend the perpetrator and determine his motive.

A report was filed Sunday afternoon, and detectives are investigating, according to a spokesperson for the department.

It was 2015 when Philadelphia’s Islamic community weathered a particularly brazen act of mosque vandalism: a severed pig’s head left outside the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Olde Kensington. The act, captured on video, was considered to be directed at Islam’s prohibition of the consumption of pork.

Tekelioglu said his group has tracked nine similar acts between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and the Lehigh Valley since then.

In 2019, the Masjidullah Center was the target of vandalism when suspects threw rocks at the facility’s front door, shattering part of it.

First opened as a synagogue in 1947, the building was converted to the West Oak Lane Church of God in the 1970s. The Masjidullah group purchased the complex for $1 million in 2013.

Ahead of the coming Ramadan holiday, Tekelioglu’s group sees the Friday episode as a sign for mosques to ramp up their security measures. The fasting holiday will begin March 22 and last through the end of April, and during those evenings, mosques are expected to be full, Tekelioglu said.

Tekelioglu pointed to a safety booklet offered by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, with recommendations that include drafting a security plan, installing cameras and alarms, and adding durable locks on entrances. Church officials are also urged to gather legal contacts and schedule meetings with law enforcement agencies.

Tekelioglu said mosques have been on high alert since the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 51 people were killed and 40 injured at two mosques in what was considered a coordinated terrorist attack.

Since then, Islamophobic episodes are reportedly increasing.

A Council on American-Islamic Relations report found that, in 2021, the group received 9% more complaints than in 2020. The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group, it reported 6,720 complaints of bias, with more than 2,000 related to immigration and travel and more than 600 from law enforcement.

“It is unfortunate that this needs to be the focus of many,” Tekelioglu said, “but unfortunately, Islamophobia, racism, and bigotry are on the rise.”