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WATERLOO – Local church leaders and their flocks rallied around the Masjid Al-Noor Islamic Center on Sunday afternoon after the center was spray painted with graffiti in what some are calling a hate crime.

“If somebody was hurting in my congregation, we go right away. We would make a pastoral call. So that’s what we are doing. We are coming to show we care, we are concerned and as neighbors we want to be here and support you,” the Rev. Steve Williams of First United Methodist Church of Cedar Falls told center officials during an interfaith prayer service on the center’s front steps.

During the ceremony, Dema Kazkaz, the center’s president, recalled a quote from the Prophet Muhammad that refers to the community as a body.

“If part of this body aches, the whole body is in pain. So you are our body, and thank you so much for showing your support and your love to all of us,” Kazkaz told attendees at the gathering.

She said the turnout showed the real face of the local community and sent a positive message.