Vandalism of Muslim Prayer Room at N.Y.U. Is Investigated as Hate Crime
A prayer room used by Muslim students at New York University was struck by vandals who etched and drew graffiti on the walls and soaked Islamic prayer mats with urine, according to N.Y.U. officials and members of the university's Muslim community.
The soiled mats and other vandalism were discovered Thursday afternoon in a worship space inside Bobst Library, the university's towering red building across from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.
An image of male genitalia was drawn onto the wall of the room, along with the letters 'AEPI,' the nickname of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a nationwide Jewish fraternity that was suspended from N.Y.U. in 2015 for hazing, according to a university directory of suspended fraternities and sororities.
N.Y.U. said it had reported the vandalism to the police and would conduct its own investigation to find and punish the vandals. The university said those found to be responsible would be 'subject to the most serious sanctions available through our disciplinary process.'
'This desecration of a religious space is vile, reprehensible and utterly unacceptable,' the university said in a statement on Thursday. 'It contravenes every principle of our community, and we condemn it.'
Jonathan Pierce, a spokesman for Alpha Epsilon Pi's national organization, said it 'strongly condemns' the vandalism and would 'fully cooperate with the administration's investigation.'
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