Abigail Shimniok

A New Jersey man has been charged with a federal hate crime after breaking into the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University (CILRU) and destroying property. Jacob Beacher, 24, was arrested April 22 and charged with one count of intentional or attempted obstruction of religious practice and one count of making false statements to federal authorities.
Beacher, who is unaffiliated with Rutgers University, broke into the CILRU at around 2:30 a.m. on April 10 during the Eid-al-Fitr holiday, where he damaged CILRU’s property. The damaged property included several religious artifacts such as Turbah prayer stones, which are clay stones on which Muslims lie flat during prayer, and numerous other items that contained holy language from the Qur’an, Islam’s sacred scripture. The complaint also alleges that Beacher stole a Palestinian flag and a charity box belonging to the CILRU.
According to the Department of Justice, around $40,000 in damage were caused. The Rutgers University Police Department responded to the incident at about 4:30 a.m. on April 10. Officers found smashed windows, a television and broken printers.
The additional hate crime charge was announced shortly after Beacher’s arrest. It is another development amid rising hostilities towards Muslims across the U.S. following the war in Gaza.
The Center for the study of Hate and Extremism at California State University show there is a record-high spike in Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian incidents in the past six months. Overall, hate crimes reported across 25 American cities increased last year by an average of 17% from 2022.
The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Rutgers University administration to do a better job protecting Muslim, Palestinian and allied students. “Muslim, Palestinian and allied students across college campuses are facing an upsurge in bigoted attacks, especially as they advocate for Palestinian liberation,” the organization said in a statement following the arrest. “The vandalization of the Center for Islamic Life at Rutgers University, which had a Palestinian flag displayed, is an example of such bigoted violence.”