Police have arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with an arson attack on a mosque in Manchester that is being treated as a hate crime.
The Nasfat Islamic Centre in the Newton Heath area of the city was gutted by the fire, which took hold on the evening of 16 July.
The blaze was discovered at 11.40pm by patrolling officers who established that a man forced his way into the building through a window before placing an unknown accelerant inside. The main prayer hall and three classrooms were severely damaged by the fire which also ripped through the roof of the building on Droylsden Road.
The 23-year-old man was questioned by Greater Manchester police on suspicion of arson and was later released under investigation.
DCI Paul Walker said: “We are continuing to investigate this as a hate crime and are still working hard to establish the full circumstances around the arson attack.
“We are grateful to have very strong relationships and cooperation with different groups in Greater Manchester and will continue to support the community that has been affected with partner agencies.
“If anyone saw anything suspicious at the time, or heard any kind of disturbance, please get in touch with the police, as you could hold vital information.”
The arson attack is being treated as a hate crime and is the third such incident to hit the building since 2014, according to a spokesperson from the mosque.
Speaking just after the attack last month, the mosque secretary, Monsurat Adebanjo-Aremu, said it had previously been targeted when two pigs’ heads were thrown inside.
She told the Manchester Evening News that the mosque had developed strong ties with the local community in recent years. “We are part of the community but the mosque was set ablaze today and almost everything that we have is completely gone, it was burned to ashes.”
She added: “All the classrooms we have for the children have been set ablaze. It’s quite unfortunate that we are part of the community and someone’s still trying to do this to us. We hope somebody’s going to look into this for us and get back to us and try to make sure that this does not happen again.”
Another official from the mosque said the first attack, a minor incident, happened after the death of British soldier Lee Rigby, who was murdered in London by two Islamic converts in 2013.
The arrest was announced on the same day that the National Police Chiefs’ Council revealed that racist and anti-religious hate crimes rose by as much as 50% in the days following the terrorist attacks in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge.
