An investigation is underway after an Islamic center at Rutgers University was vandalized, officials said.
A 24-year-old man from New Jersey has admitted to vandalizing the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers earlier this year, during a Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Jacob Beacher of North Plainfield pleaded guilty Thursday to the charge of damage to religious property, a federal hate crime. He faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the loss from the destruction of religious artifacts and multiple other items that contained holy language from the Qur'an at the university's community center for Muslims.
Beacher is scheduled to be sentenced next year.
Prosecutors say Beacher broke into the CILRU on April 10, the Eid-al-Fitr holiday, around 2:41 a.m. and stole a Palestinian flag and a charity box in addition to damaging prayer stones and other items. The damage he caused totaled more than $5,000.
"This defendant is being held accountable for Islamophobic-fueled acts of hate, interfering with the religious freedom of university students and staff during a sacred holiday for those of the Islamic faith,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
The incident at Rutgers was reflective of a spike in anti-Muslim complaints the Council on American-Islamic Relations of New Jersey received in the first half of 2024.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
CAIR-NJ reported earlier this year that it documented a total of 186 complaints, a 118% increase over the same period in 2023, regarding anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias and discrimination at school settings and the workplace.
