Source: http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/93036/galway-stands-with-ahmadiyya-community-against-islamophobic-attack

Public stands firm with Muslim community as attacks condemned as ‘cowardly’ and ‘dreadful’

Galwegians standing in solidarity with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community at the Masjid Maryam following Monday night’s Islamophobic vandalism.

The emergence of racist and neo-Nazi graffiti in Galway has been linked with vandalism on the city’s main mosque this week. However the public has stood firm with the Muslim community against any form of Islamophobia, while politicians have condemned the attack as “cowardly” and “dreadful”.

The Masjid Maryam Mosque on the Old Ballybrit Road was attacked on Monday night, when rocks were smashed against its windows. The attack happened on Monday night at around 11.10pm, when a “sizeable number” of people were present inside for prayers. The mosque belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Galway.

This is not the first time the mosque has been attacked. According to Imam Ibrahim Noonan [photographed below by Mike Shaughnessy], “we have had incidents in the past where people have thrown stones at the mosque, but these attacks would happen when no one was in the mosque, but these people did this knowiing that people were inside the mosque, so this was a deliberate attack and I do believe it was directly connected to what happened in London.”

However Galway has stood with the Ahmadiyya community against the Islamophobic attack, with Tuesday night seeing a solidarity rally organised by the Galway Anti Racism Network. Close to 100 people arrived at the mosque at… read more at source.