Members of a Dundee mosque have told of the moment a member of the public interrupted their prayer group and allegedly began vandalising their place of worship.
The alleged incident happened at the city’s Taj Dar-e-Madina Mosque on Victoria Road at around 1.30pm on Friday.
Witnesses described seeing asuspicious-looking man wander into a children’s prayer group before allegedly punching glass frames containing holy verses of the Koran and intimidating young worshipers.
The suspected vandal allegedly uttered racist remarks against the Prophet Muhammad and struck glass framing with such force that his hands “were left covered in blood”.
The 38-year-old suspect waseventually arrested after police rushed to the scene following a panicked call from terrified worshipers.
Committee member Qaiser Habib, who was upstairs with more than 100 others mosque members when theincident took place, told The Courier he fears other mosques throughout the city may now face a similar fate.
Describing the moment he realised something had gone wrong, Mr Habib told The Courier: “More than 100 ofus were upstairs for afternoon prayers and suddenly heard a lot of noise down the stairs.
“Someone phoned the police quite quickly, but before that the man who had come into the mosque had run about punching glass frames and saying things against Islam.
“The children who were in the room told me he was saying things against the Prophet, but he didn’t seem to speak much English.
“I’ve never known of anything likethis to happen in any of the city’s mosques before.
“Dundee is a peaceful city butthe other mosques in the city will nowbe wondering which one of them could be next.
“It’s important that we raiseawareness of these kind of issues, to ensure that they don’t happen again.”
Police Scotland confirmed that a 38-year-old man had been arrested and will appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday morning.
A police spokesperson said: “Police received a call at 1.32pm, reporting a male vandalising property withinVictoria Road Mosque.
“We attended and traced a38-year-old man who was arrested for a racially aggravated breach of the peace, vandalism and resisting arrest.
“The man will be kept in custodyand will appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday.”