PSNI investigate if Belfast Islamic Centre attack was a hate crime
are investigating whether an attack on the
Belfast Islamic Centre
was a hate crime after a viable device was thrown through a window. A man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Northern Ireland's
Minister for Justice,
Naomi Long
, has described the attack as 'abhorrent' and 'absolutely despicable'.
A viable device was thrown through a window of the centre during evening prayer on Friday.
A 34-year-old man was arrested and police are investigating whether the incident was a hate crime.
READ MORE
The
Alliance Party
leader said it was 'despicable' that people were afraid to go to their place of worship.
'I think it was an abhorrent attack on people who were at worship, and I think that for any of us, we would accept that that is just not acceptable,' Ms Long told the BBC's Sunday Politics programme.
'This is not who we want to be as [a] society. It's not what we want to be known for around the world.
'I think it is despicable that people are afraid to go to their place of worship, afraid to go to live in their own homes or go to their school or go to their workplace because of fear of attack because of the colour of their skin or their religion.
'That just isn't acceptable, and that needs to be condemned unequivocally by everyone in society.'
Ms Long was also asked about policing resources in the wake of riots across Northern Ireland, which have been criticised as 'racist thuggery' by police.
After
disorder broke out in Ballymena
for several nights after an alleged sexual assault of a girl, disturbances spread to other areas of Northern Ireland including Portadown, Larne, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Derry and Coleraine.
The Stormont Executive pledged an extra £5 million (€5.8 million) for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to respond.
Ms Long said that most of that funding had already been spent as the disorder had been a 'drain' on resources.
[
Ballymena: Week of violent attacks on Northern Ireland's small immigrant community 'akin to 1930s Germany'
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]
'It's hugely frustrating at a time when our justice system is so stretched that we have people not just putting pressure on the resources of the PSNI, but destroying their own communities at a cost to everyone in our society, because that will all have to be repaired and rebuilt,' she said. – PA
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