DOJ says man charged in Philadelphia mosque fire targeted it because it was a mosque

The US Justice Department (DOJ) says a man charged in connection with a mid-July fire at the Northeast Philadelphia ​Islamic Center targeted the house of worship because it is a mosque.

Vincent Lang, 60, “was charged by indictment with one count of malicious damage by means of fire to a building used in interstate commerce and one count of damage to religious real property,” the DOJ says in a statement.

The indictment alleges that “Lang carried out the act because of the religious character of that property, that is, because it was a mosque.”

The defendant has been detained in federal custody since his mid-July arrest, the DOJ says.

The indictment alleges that, in the early hours of July 5, Lang maliciously damaged and destroyed, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire, the Northeast Philadelphia Islamic Center.

Local media reported ⁠no one was injured in the incident.

If convicted, Lang faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment, the DOJ says.

A representative ​of ⁠Lang could not be reached for comment.

US rights advocates have noted rising Islamophobia in the decades following the September 11, ⁠2001, terror ​attacks, and more recently because ​of anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout from Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.