Police in South Carolina are now offering a reward for information that might lead to the arrest of the vandals who desecrated a historic church.
On the weekend of Palm Sunday, the 150-year-old Midway Presbyterian Church in Anderson, SC was vandalized sometime between 8 p.m. Saturday and early Sunday morning, according to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office.
The church had 4 of its stained-glass windows broken and was spray painted with the phrases “Submit to God thru Islam” and “Muhammed is his prophet”, a misspelling of the word “Muhammed,” were written on the church.
The Sheriff’s Office posted about the incident on Facebook, asking for help in finding the suspects.
Many now think the vandalism was done by a person or group who wanted to frame Muslims.
In addition to ‘Muhammed’ being spelled wrong, Muslims almost never refer to Allah as ‘God’ (“turn to God…” was written on the side of the church).
Similar graffiti was also reported about a week later at another church 20 miles up the road in Easley, SC, without any Islamic messaging, but with a similar spraypainting pattern and using the same color paint;
If you have any information about the vandals, please call the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office at 260-4400, or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.