COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The FBI is investigating vandalism at the city's oldest mosque, and authorities say the culprits could face harsher penalties if federal civil rights or local ethnic intimidation charges are invoked.
Vandals drilled holes in floors at the Islamic Center of Columbus, ripped up copies of the Quran and pulled water pipes from walls, saturating floors and ceilings of the three-story building.
``It was not just an attack on Muslims; it's an attack on all of us,'' said Ahmad Al-Akhras, president of the Ohio Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Muslim leaders praised the help they have received from non-Muslims since the vandalism and said they have been offered space, money and sympathy.
``We're trying to promote peace in the community,'' said Sheila Seifert of Covenant Presbyterian Church in suburban Upper Arlington, who attended an impromptu support rally outside the mosque.
- Religious and social conservatives encourage President Bush on human cloning ban
WASHINGTON (AP) - Religious and social conservatives have written President Bush commending his ``moral leadership'' in opposing human cloning and urging the U.S. Senate to pass a House bill outlawing the practice.
The statement came from the Bioethics Project, chaired by editor William Kristol of The Weekly Standard. The religious endorsers included two spokesmen for the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant body, which takes a strong anti-cloning stand.
Other supporters were Roman Catholic conservatives William Bennett and the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus; evangelical Protestants James Dobson and Charles Colson; former Republican presidential candidates Gary Bauer and Steve Forbes and officials of the Christian Coalition, Christian Legal Society, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council and National Right to Life Committee