WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) – \u2060The \u2060U.S. Department of Justice \u2060said on Thursday a man charged in \u200bconnection to a mid-July fire at the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center \u200chad targeted the house \u200cof worship because it was a mosque.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Vincent \u2060Lang, 60, “was \u2060charged by indictment with one count of malicious damage \u200bby means of fire to a building used in interstate commerce and one count of damage to religious real property,” the \u200bDOJ said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The indictment alleged “Lang carried \u2060out the \u2060act because of the \u2060religious \u200bcharacter of that property, that is, because it was a \u200bmosque.”<\/p>\n
\u2022 The defendant \u2060has been detained in federal custody since his mid-July arrest, the DOJ said<\/p>\n
\u2022 The indictment alleges that, in the early hours of July 5, Lang maliciously damaged and \u2060destroyed, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire, \u2060the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Local media reported no one was injured in the incident.<\/p>\n
\u2022 If convicted, Lang faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment, the DOJ said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 A representative of Lang could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
\u2022 U.S. rights advocates \u2060have 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 \u200bIsrael’s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in \u200bWashington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)<\/p>\n
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