BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

DURHAM -- Monday morning, an official at the Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman masjid on Fayetteville Street arrived to find the front glass doors smashed as well as other doors and windows, and computer parts stolen.

"We are worried about our safety, especially next door to a police station and Food Lion," said Imam Amr Dabour, the mosque's prayer leader. The mosque is in a busy business area near the Durham Police Department District 4 substation. Dabour said the break-in must have made a lot of noise. "We hoped the police could do better," he said.

Dabour said the mosque, which has been there for nearly 30 years, has good relationships with its neighbors and the police. "We've had almost no problems before," he said.

Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman was also attacked in late July, again with smashed glass doors and windows. Dabour said the recent break-in is very strange. "It might be a hate crime. At the same time it might have been someone drunk," he said.

Police on Thursday said the department is continuing its investigation and has not determined if the incident was a hate crime. No arrests have been made, according to police spokeswoman Kammie Michael.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the national Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that when someone usually robs a building, they don't do the extensive damage that the Durham mosque received, with several broken doors and windows. Hooper said a bias motive should be considered. Daniel Boyd, who was arrested on terrorism charges in Wake County this summer, attended the mosque.

Hooper said that vandalism of mosques is not frequent, but happens fairly regularly, with CAIR knowing of at least a half dozen cases a year. Most recently a mosque in Texas was defaced with anti-Muslim graffiti. Sometimes it is arson. In Maine, someone rolled a pig's head into a mosque, Hooper said.

Hooper said that CAIR advises mosques to put in video cameras as a deterrent, have solid doors instead of glass doors, and not have shrubs surrounding the building.

"Have good relations with neighbors so you're not seen as a foreign entity," he also suggested, as well as relations with law enforcement and hosting open houses.

Dabour said Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman has video cameras, but the system was down at the time of the attack. The mosque board will hold an emergency meeting Sunday to consider what security measures to take, including replacing the video system.

Events at the mosque will continue as usual. Dabour said officials used to leave the doors unlocked because the mosque also serves as a community center. They've had a soup kitchen, and events attended by Muslims and non-Muslims.

The Rev. Joe Harvard, pastor of First Presbyterian Church downtown, has been part of interfaith efforts in Durham and spoke with Dabour at an event earlier this fall. He was very upset to hear about the incident at the mosque. He said that it would be alarming to happen to anybody, but in the current environment, it could have been a hate crime.

"I want to assure our Muslim friends we deplore these acts for whatever reason and we will stand with them to have a safe and secure place to worship," Harvard said. "An important value in our culture is that people of different faiths have the freedom to worship freely and securely. Any threat to that is a threat to all of us."

Harvard said he is grateful for the friendship of Dabour and the Muslim community. "Our prayers are for their safety and security. We will work with them," he said.