WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday a man charged in connection to a mid-July fire at the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center had targeted the house of worship because it was a mosque.
• Vincent Lang, 60, “was charged by indictment with one count of malicious damage by means of fire to a building used in interstate commerce and one count of damage to religious real property,” the DOJ said in a statement.
• The indictment alleged “Lang carried out the act because of the religious character of that property, that is, because it was a mosque.”
• The defendant has been detained in federal custody since his mid-July arrest, the DOJ said
• The indictment alleges that, in the early hours of July 5, Lang maliciously damaged and destroyed, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire, the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center.
• Local media reported no one was injured in the incident.
• If convicted, Lang faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment, the DOJ said.
• A representative of Lang could not be reached for comment.
• U.S. rights advocates have noted rising Islamophobia in the decades following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and more recently because of anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout from Israel’s war in Gaza.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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