NEW YORK (AP) — Police kept watch over a globally prominent Islamic cultural center that was firebombed as they investigated other attacks that also could be bias crimes.
Although structural damage to the Imam Al- Khoei Foundation building was minimal, the incident Sunday has left the community emotionally shaken, said its assistant imam, Maan Al-Sahlani.
On Sunday evening, the entrance to the foundation in Queens was struck by two Molotov cocktails, the types of bombs usually made of glass bottles filled with flammable liquid and corked with rags.
A private house that is used as a Hindu house of worship also was hit. A videotape from a surveillance camera shows a car pulling up to the house Sunday night. Someone suddenly appears, lifts his right arm high and hurls a lit object that strikes the house and explodes into flames.
Besides the private house and the Islamic center, the other targets in the suspected arson attacks were a corner store and another house.
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