Flames engulfed the Victoria Islamic Center, destroying the building in the predawn hours Saturday as congregation members watched from the curb, overcome with emotion.

“It’s a house of worship,” Shahid Hashmi, president of the center, said as he watched the flames from across the street.

Firefighters and several engines were dispatched to the burning building, 201 E. Airline Road, after 2 a.m. Fire crews and police officers arrived to find the mosque completely consumed in flames, said Battalion Chief Jeff Cowan, Victoria Fire Department.

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Their place of worship was ravaged by fire Saturday morning, but Victoria Islamic Center members had rediscovered hope by that evening.

“God always has a plan. Out of tragedies, sometimes good things happen,” said Abe Ajrami, a mosque member.

Ajrami grieved the loss of his place of worship, which he had attended for years, but also expressed wonder and appreciation for the massive show of support he and and other members had received.

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Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a fire that gutted the Victoria Islamic Center and left the community reeling and rallying to rebuild hope.

The fire roared out of the darkness early Saturday. As firefighters battled the towering blaze, congregation members watched from the curb, overcome with emotion. Later, they prayed on the sidewalk across the street from the smoldering mosque.

“It’s a house of worship,” Shahid Hashmi, president of the center, said as he watched from across the street.

The mosque had hosted a congregational dinner only hours before, Hashmi said.

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Amid international media attention, hundreds of supporters prayed and communed Sunday morning at the burned ruins of the Victoria Islamic Center in a show of community solidarity.

“Look at Victoria and learn the lesson ... as to how people can come together as one human family,” said M.J. Khan, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, as he stood before the gathered crowd.

Religious leaders of varying faiths and backgrounds led an emotional crowd as fire investigators worked behind yellow crime scene tape in the mosque’s broken rubble. Police, who blocked off Airline Road for the service, estimated that 400 people attended.

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Mosque cat finds new home

Jan. 31, 2017

When Victoria Fire Marshal Tom Legler investigated the scene Saturday and Sunday where the Victoria Islamic Center burned down, an orange cat followed him around.

“When I was taking a break he curled up next to me,” Legler said. “The congregation was so happy to see it walking around and basically following me.”

Abe Ajrami, 50, said the cat had hung around the mosque for the past few months. The children would feed the cat, who was very friendly.

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Walid Taha, 32, crossed caution tape to walk into the Victoria Islamic Center on Monday for the first time since it burned down early Saturday morning.

Taha observed how the building of worship was in ruins with rubble and mud on the mosque’s floor and remnants of what was left hanging off the weak structure. He walked into each room and quietly looked around taking it all in.

“I don’t know what to say,” Taha said when asked how he felt. “The whole building, it’s burned down.”

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About 21,100 people have donated more than $1 million to help rebuild a Victoria mosque that burned down Saturday.

The donations have poured in from across the U.S. and overseas via a GoFundMe drive, mailed checks and cash. The average donation to the Victoria Islamic Center’s GoFundMe page was $47, said Omar Rachid, a congregation member who set up the page.

“You can see when small donations are put together great things can come about,” he said. “Above all, it restores our faith and belief that people want us here. They want us to be part of the community. They want us to be part of the American fiber.”

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“One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Victorians wore jackets against the morning chill as a community service began Sunday in front of the gutted mosque.

By the end of the hourlong service, the warmth of the sun and of the fellowship felt by all flowed in every direction. Light shone through the darkness of the night that had consumed the Victoria Islamic Center.

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Investigators are trying to determine whether a break-in at the Victoria Islamic Center is connected to the fire that destroyed it days later.

“We’re looking at every single possible angle we can come up with,” Victoria Fire Marshal Tom Legler said Tuesday.

Investigators have canvassed the area and asked local businesses to provide security camera footage of the night.

Someone used a tool to pry open the back double doors of the Victoria Islamic Center, 201 E. Airline Road, on Jan. 22. That person then made off with a gold Sony Laptop, a black iPad 2, three iPhone 7 Pluses and a gold Samsung Tablet. The items were valued at $3,600, according to a police report.

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Healing was in the hearts of hundreds of students, parents and faculty who walked from St. Joseph High School to the charred remains of the Victoria Islamic Center’s mosque Wednesday morning.

“Being such a small town, we can always be there for one another - no matter what our race or religion or anything is,” said Ally Rodriguez, a 17-year-old St. Joseph senior.

About 200 marchers, mostly students, participated in the voluntary “Walk of Love,” promenading the several blocks that separate the high school from the mosque. At their destination, they conducted a service to show their support for Victoria residents of all colors and creeds.

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When I first arrived in Victoria, I went through a period of months where everything felt unfamiliar.

No friends. No family, a drained bank account after the move, making it harder to go out and make friends and visit family.

So, I threw myself into work for months while I saved money and became acclimated to Texas life.

I often drove around the Crossroads, stopping here and there, meeting people for coffee, searching for anyone and everyone who would share their religion journeys with me and let me write about them.

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A Catholic man in Massachusetts didn’t have much to spare, but he mailed $5 anyway.

Another woman offered to help paint the walls whenever a new mosque is built in Victoria.

Strangers, people of different faiths and from different states have sent their love to the Victoria Islamic Center members.

Since their mosque burned Jan. 28, congregation members have received more letters than they can count and more than $27,000 in mailed donations from 13 states to their post office box alone.

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Christian Revello, 8, sat with curiosity as he learned about different religious objects and beliefs.

He was among 11 Boy Scouts who were given a presentation about different faiths during their weekly meeting Tuesday at Vickers Elementary School.

The Scouts invited members of different religions such as a Catholic priest, a member of the Temple B’nai Israel, a Lutheran pastor and a representative of the Victoria Islamic Center.

“It was to make them open-minded from a young age,” said Imam Osama Hassan, of the Victoria Islamic Center. “It’s something good for them to know about people around them.”

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Arson caused the blaze that gutted the Victoria Islamic Center on Jan. 28, investigators announced Wednesday.

“We appeal to the arsonist or arsonists to put an end to this tragedy and surrender to law enforcement,” mosque members said a news release issued immediately after the investigators’ announcement. “The blessing of not having loss of lives or physical injuries makes it easier to try to correct the wrong and fix the damage before it’s too late.”

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Fears were confirmed Wednesday after investigators announced arson was the cause of a blaze that torched the Victoria Islamic Center in late January.

“To the last minute, we were hoping it would be an accident,” said Abe Ajrami, mosque board member, shortly after investigators’ afternoon announcement. “To know that someone is out there that did this puts a whole different perspective on it.”

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Much work remains in determining whether hate motivated the arsonist who destroyed the Victoria Islamic Center in late January.

“We know how the fire was started, but we don’t know why the fire was started,” said Nicole Strong, public information officer for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Houston division.

ATF officials announced in a news release Wednesday they had determined arson as the cause of a blaze that razed the Victoria mosque Jan. 28. So far, investigators don’t know whether a hate crime occurred. That could change as the investigation proceeds, said Tom Legler, Victoria Fire Marshal.

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One of the checks slipped into Gracie Mendoza’s hand by a smiling mosque member Friday night was made out for “a thousand dollars and prayers.”

“It’s the human thing to do,” said Heidi Ajrami, member of the Victoria Islamic Center. “But also we feel strongly for them because we’ve lost a place to fire and know how devastating that is.”

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In the wake of the fire that consumed the Victoria Islamic Center on Jan. 28, a renewed sense of unity between faiths continues to permeate the community.

A local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America invited a Catholic priest, members of the Temple B’nai Israel, a Lutheran pastor and a representative of the Victoria Islamic Center to Vickers Elementary School to give a presentation on the various faiths last week.

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While employees prepared plates of food and waited tables, the phone rang at Angie’s Mexican Cafe with an anonymous voice saying, “ICE is coming for you.”

Angie Hernandez, the owner, said the recent phone calls mentioning the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been scaring her employees lately.

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A man suspected of burning the Victoria Islamic Center is a homegrown product with an apparent hatred of Muslims, according to testimony Thursday in federal court.

News of the arrest is allowing congregation members to start to shake off the fear that has pervaded their lives, mosque spokesman Abe Ajrami said.

“This incident really shook us to the core,” Ajrami said at a news conference at the site of the burned mosque. “I hope people understand that this is not something we watched on TV or read in the newspaper. This is something we lived daily.”

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The U.S. Department of Justice is lending its expertise to help strengthen solidarity throughout the community after the Victoria Islamic Center was destroyed by an arsonist.

Kim Milstead, a conciliation specialist with the Department of Justice, met with board and congregation members of the Islamic center on Friday to speak about the Community Relations Service.

The Community Relations Service, a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, is the federal government’s “peacemaker” for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color and national origin.

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Marq Vincent Perez, the Victoria man suspected of burning the Victoria Islamic Center, had an obsession with fire, friends say.

“He was definitely a pyro,” said Cody Starling, a 24-year-old Victoria resident who attended church functions with Perez at Faith Family Church as a teen. “He would always have a lighter on him and be tinkering with it.”

Starling, who met Perez, now 25, in the sixth grade, is one of several middle and high school friends who described him as fascinated by fire.

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The Victoria TX Independent Film Festival often takes Victoria moviegoers on a global journey, but this year, the event began with an emotional message from home.

A few minutes of an untitled documentary about the arson that destroyed the Victoria Islamic Center led the opening ceremony of the film festival Thursday night at the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts.

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Almost four months after the destruction of their place of worship, members of the Victoria Islamic Center will begin to rebuild.

“Everyone is invited,” said Shahid Hashmi, the center’s president, about a May 27 ceremony to mark the beginning of the mosque’s reconstruction.

At the event, Hashmi and congregation members plan to show off the new mosque’s design, created by Victoria architect Rawley McCoy, with whom they have worked closely with for months. With reconstruction yet to be officially scheduled, the ceremony will be symbolic but nevertheless momentous, Hashmi said.

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Congregation celebrates groundbreaking of new mosque

May 28, 2017

The groundbreaking ceremony Saturday was the fulfillment of a vow made by mosque members who months ago watched their place of worship fall to the flames of arson.

“The first night it happened, I said, ‘We are going to rebuild this thing,’” said Abe Ajrami, member of the Victoria Islamic Center. “This is our dream come true.”

Saturday, the second night of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, those members celebrated the first tangible efforts of reconstruction by digging a shovel into the future mosque’s grounds. More than 50 people attended that event.

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Synagogue vandalism gives insight into mosque arson

June 6, 2017

The mark left in the minds of members of a Victoria synagogue lingered long after the spray-painted swastikas on their place of worship were scrubbed away.

“No matter what you do to wash away the images, they are still in your mind,” said Dr. Gary Branfman, a member of Temple B’Nai Israel. “I still see that picture.”

Looking back at the convictions of the three vandals who defaced the Temple B’Nai Israel in 2007 may provide insights into potential prosecution of suspected mosque arsonist Marq Vincent Perez, of Victoria. Legal experts say federal prosecutors likely will face unique challenges if seeking a hate crime conviction for Perez just as county prosecutors did in 2007.

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Mosque arson suspect charged with hate crime

June 23, 2017

Five months after flames ripped through a Victoria mosque, arson suspect Marq Vincent Perez has been charged with a hate crime.

“Intentionally defacing, damaging or destroying a religious house of worship, such as a mosque, here is a federal crime, a crime that is intolerable in a free and open society of the type that we live in,” said Abe Martinez, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

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CORPUS CHRISTI - A Victoria man appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges related to the arson of the Victoria Islamic Center at a Friday hearing at the U.S. Courthouse in Corpus Christi.
“The fact that he was indicted does not and is not supposed to give an inference of his guilt in any way, shape or form,” said Mark Di Carlo, the defendant’s attorney.

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The looming prosecution of Marq Vincent Perez may send a message that American Muslims have equal protection under the law.

“Muslims in Texas and the U.S. want to see the system work to protect them,” said Corey Saylor, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Oftentimes, Muslims are concerned that authorities will look the other way. This case, so far, is not at all (that).”

So far in 2017, the council has noted 85 incidents in which U.S. mosques were the targets of prejudice, making this year on track to surpass 2015, the year with the most anti-mosque incidents since 2001, Saylor said.

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In three months, a federal judge will consider setting a trial date for mosque arson suspect Marq Vincent Perez. But first, his attorney will have to review enough evidence to fill about four sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the attorney said.

“It’s a tremendous amount of information, and I need to look at every page,” said Mark Di Carlo, Perez’s attorney, adding that the amount of evidence is larger than in any other case he has worked in his 31-year career.

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The case of a man accused of burning the Victoria mosque should reach trial by spring, a federal judge said Wednesday.

“I want to get this case to trial as soon as possible,” said Senior U.S. District Judge John Rainey.

At a pretrial conference in the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building in Victoria, attorneys from the defense and prosecution appeared before Rainey to discuss evidence, scheduling, detention and other matters. The defendant, Marq Vincent Perez, 25, also appeared, wearing an indigo jail jumper and closely trimmed goatee. He is accused of setting fire to the Victoria Islamic Center in January.

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Mosque reconstruction downsized amid rising costs

November 4, 2017

Financial and hurricane-related complications could mean the rebuilt Victoria Islamic Center gets one minaret instead of two.

Minarets are spire-like architectural features historically found at mosques.

“Keep in mind that the process is fluid. It’s changeable,” mosque member Abe Ajrami said Friday. “So if we get more funding down the road, we will maybe put the other minaret back.”

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Arson suspect could stand trial by late spring

Jan. 12, 2018

A federal judge wants mosque arson suspect Marq Vincent Perez to stand trial by April or May.

“It’s my duty to not let this thing languish,” said presiding Senior U.S. District Judge John Rainey, adding, “We’re going to have to fish or cut bait.”

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Mosque arson anniversary brings questions of faith, unity

Jan. 29, 2018

As the flames of arson illuminated their tears, members of the Victoria Islamic Center paced the sidewalk surrounding their burning mosque and prayed for understanding.

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DNA tests could delay mosque arson trial

Feb. 7, 2018

Victoria resident Marq Vincent Perez, 26, should stand trial by April 9, although pending DNA tests could cause delays.

“I will revisit the matter once we find out what that testing reveals,” presiding Senior U.S. District Judge John Rainey said during a Wednesday pretrial hearing.

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