Loading ...Students say man urinated on prayer rug at University of Michigan
Genan Harissa, a third-year engineering student at the University of Michigan, says her friend witnessed a man urinating on a Muslim prayer rug inside a campus reflection room Sunday afternoon. (WXYZ)By Jessica Chasmar
The Washington Times
University of Michigan police are investigating a possible hate crime after a Muslim student reported seeing a man urinating on a prayer rug inside a reflection room at the Ann Arbor campus.
Police said one of three people in the reflection room at Shapiro Undergraduate Library was reported to have urinated on a prayer rug Sunday afternoon, MLive.com reported. The individuals were gone when police arrived and facility staff were expected to clean the room, according to the University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security’s crime log.
Diane Brown, spokeswoman for the division, said the incident was listed as malicious destruction of property with a bias motivation. Officials are still looking for the person responsible.
Genan Harissa, a third-year engineering student, and her friend visiting from the University of Michigan, Dearborn, campus filed the police report claiming at least one of the three men in the prayer room urinated on the rug. Ms. Harissa told a local ABC News affiliate that her friend scared the individuals off when he approached the prayer room.
The allegations came the same week that racist and anti-Semitic emails to students declaring “Heil Trump!” were falsely attributed to an engineering professor and one of his students.
The FBI is currently investigating the emails.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations is seeking tips in both cases.
“Students on our university campuses should feel safe to express their faiths without fear of intimidation or harassment,” CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid said in a statement.
“We encourage anyone who has knowledge of this incident to immediately contact law enforcement authorities.”
