We don't know exactly what happened late last Sunday night or early Monday morning at the Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman mosque on Fayetteville Street.

And we certainly don't know why it happened.

But overnight vandalism there has raised disquieting questions. Anytime a house of worship is violated, it is unfortunate. But with misguided mistrust and unfair fear of Muslims lurking not far from the surface, this intrusion into a mosque is especially worrisome.

And with the grim coincidence of a Muslim soldier opening fire at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, killing 12 people and wounding over 30, the need to stress calm and composure is even higher.

Imam Amr Dabour, Jamaat Ibad Ar-Rahman's prayer leader, told The Herald-Sun's Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan last week that the mosque's members were "worried about our safety."

He acknowledged neither he nor police knew enough for a conclusion -- or even more than worried speculation -- about the motives of the person or persons who smashed the mosque's glass front doors, broke other doors and windows and stole computer parts.

"It might be a hate crime," Dabour said. "At the same time, it might have been someone drunk."

We hope it was the latter, for as disturbing as it is someone might drunkenly do such damage, it is far better than learning it was done out of hatred.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the national Council on American-Islamic Relations, did note that someone bent on theft normally doesn't do the kind of extensive damage the Durham mosque sustained.

Theft itself is far from unknown at churches, as Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez pointed out. "I don't think in most cases it's an attack on a religion as much as a means to steal something from what they might consider a soft target," he said.

Lopez said police on Friday still were investigating the incident, "but if we find any indication that it was a hate crime, we're going to pursue it."

That's exactly the right cautious but firm approach we should expect.

And we should heed the words of the Rev. Joe Harvard, long-time pastor of Durham's First Presbyterian Church and a tireless advocate of the ecumenical embrace of all faiths.

"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 last week.

To which we can only add our "amen."