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Newsday - June 16, 2005
Burned Qurans left at Virginia Muslim center
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A bag stuffed with burned Qurans was left in front of an Islamic center, shocking members when they arrived for prayers.
The torched copies of the Muslim holy book were inside a plastic shopping bag, members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg said. They said the bag had been placed at the center's front door sometime before Saturday prayers.
Kevin Foust, the agent in charge of the Roanoke FBI office, said Thursday his office is helping local police investigate. He declined to speculate whether the incident would be classified as a hate crime under state or federal law.
An incident can only be deemed a hate crime if it was meant to intimidate or harass, police said. Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, D.C., said the Quran burning fits that definition.
"If pages from the Bible were burned and put in a bag outside a church, I think the reaction of the police would be that it would be a hate crime," she said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-brf-quran-burning,0,4183351.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines
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