Theft at Calgary mosque leaves community worried

A Calgary mosque was broke into Saturday and a number of valuable items were stolen, says one of the members.

According to the Hussaini Association of Calgary, an unknown man entered the property in the city's southeast between 7:30 and 8 p.m.

Riyaz Khawaja, who is on the association's executive committee, says the group found out about the incident shortly after.

"The fence was cut and one of the gate locks was cut and valuables were missing," he said.

"Then I'm looking at our CCTV cameras and we found out a Caucasian male has gotten access to that mosque properties."

Khawaja believes the man stole an LED TV, projector, a media system and other valuables such as kitchen supplies.

"It was sad and everybody was kind of worried because we had a ladies event right after and so we didn't know what happened," he said.

He says that the mosque has rarely had any trouble, and that the last form of vandalism happened in 1986.

"When a person can break into a worship place like that — which is fully secured with a fence and everything else — you don't know what will be next."

The association has already notified police, who confirmed they are investigating the incident. 

Khawaja says the group plans to request that police patrol the area around the mosque more often.

Anyone with information about the break-in is asked to contact police at 403-266-1234.