Authorities in California are investigating two possible hate crimes against Islamic centers in Sacramento and Davis.
The Sacramento County sheriff’s department said it was investigating an incident at Masjid Annur Islamic Center in Sacramento. Officials said a deputy was waved down by a citizen on Saturday afternoon and was led to a burned Qur’an filled with bacon, hanging by a handcuff from a fence.
Officials told the Sacramento Bee newspaper that sheriff’s hate crime detectives were called to the scene, and the department’s community relations unit contacted leaders of the Islamic Center to offer assistance.
Masjid Annur Islamic Center is the largest mosque in the greater Sacramento area, officials said.
The Bee reported that in a separate incident someone driving by in a car threw pages torn out of a Qur’an into the Islamic Center of Davis on Friday night, during evening prayer.
In January, a woman broke windows at the mosque and left bacon strips on the entrance handles. The woman, 30-year-old Lauren Kirk-Coehlo, recently received five years’ probation after pleading guilty to a felony hate crime.