SYDNEY, 12 October 2004 — Arsonists started a small fire at a Sydney mosque early yesterday, but none of the worshippers in the building was injured, police said.
The attackers set fire to wooden planks at the back of the Rooty Hill Mosque in western Sydney, damaging a door and carpet, police said in a statement. There were no immediate arrests.
There were worshippers in the mosque at the time of the fire, but nobody was hurt. Police said an investigation was under way.
Muslims in Sydney have said there has been an increase in anti-Muslim attacks since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States. Stepan Kerkyasharian, chairman of the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural New South Wales condemned the attack.
“Attacks on places of worship are always contemptible because they strike at people’s deepest beliefs and can leave them feeling rejected and despised,” he said in a statement.
“Whether this was simply an act of hooliganism or vandalism or an expression of religious hatred, it has no place in our successful and harmonious society. All Australians have the right to worship in peace and to have their places of worship protected.”
The arson attack came a day before the second anniversary of the bombing of a nightclub on the Indonesian resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, 88 of them Australian. The bombing was blamed on militants linked to the Al-Qaeda network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
