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Group Asks FBI To Investigate Anti-Islam Vandalism In St. Paul

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) — The FBI is being asked to investigate a possible hate crime in St. Paul.

Neighbors found someone had painted an anti-Islam message on a driveway in the West Seventh neighborhood.

"St. Paul seems like a safe, quiet place to live and to see something like that is shocking," Justin Jennissen, a neighbor, said.

The anti-Islam message was written using motor oil so it couldn't be washed off.

"I think it's extremely disturbing that this can happen in St. Paul of all places in 2014," Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota director, Lori Saroya, said.

A neighbor called the council to report the graffiti that faces outward towards the neighborhood.

Saroya says several Muslim families live in the area.

"There are about 150,000 Muslims in the state of Minnesota," Saroya said.

Saroya says police don't know if the people who live in the home next to the vandalized driveway are Muslim.

But that they do know the neighbors who called the city to have the driveway painted over are not.

"It doesn't seem like something that would be in the neighborhood. And to see that kind of message displayed doesn't really make any sense," Jennissen said.

CAIR is asking the FBI to investigate the incident as a hate crime. Agents are working with the St. Paul Police department to determine if there should be a formal investigation.

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