Arkansas mosque pays the $1,700 fine levied on a vandal who defaced it with swastikas, slurs

Vandal tags Arkansas mosque
(Image credit: screenshot/KARK 4)

In October 2016, Abraham Davis was captured on video vandalizing the Masjid Al Salam mosque in Fort Smith, Arkansas, spray-painting swastikas and other unfriendly messages across the Islamic center's front. He was sentenced to community service and given a "hefty fine," KARK 4's Peyton Yager reports, and when the mosque found out that Davis couldn't pay the fine, it wrote a check for the remaining $1,700, from a fund earmarked for mosque renovations. "If you don't pay your fine, that's an automatic six years in jail," mosque president Louay Nassri explained. "Well, we didn't want him to go to jail for six years."

"If he would've known who we are, he wouldn't have done this," Nassri told KARK 4. "If we would've known his troubles with us, we would've tried to help him. Communication is extremely important. Education is extremely important." You can watch the report below. Peter Weber

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.