Seven-year-old Texas boy donates piggy bank to vandalised mosque

Seven-year-old Jack Swanson donated $20 to the mosque

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Seven-year-old boy empties piggy bank and donates money to vandalised mosque

‘It’s 20 bucks, but coming from Jack collecting his pennies it’s worth 20 million bucks to me and to our community’

Serina Sandhu

A seven-year-old boy has donated his entire piggy-bank savings to a mosque in Texas that was vandalised in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

A member of the Islamic Center of Pflugerville (ICP), in Travis County, arrived on Monday morning to find that faeces had been left in front of the building.

Pages torn from the Koran were also left at the scene.

But after discussing the incident with his mother, schoolboy Jack Swanson decided he would empty his piggy bank and make a donation of $20 to the mosque, news site Kxan.com reported.

His mother, Laura, said the pair had spoken about how the act of vandalism was a “really awful thing to do”.

“We had a good conversation [about] what churches are for and how everybody’s churches are important.”

Faisal Naeem, a board member at the mosque, said the donation gave him hope.

“It’s 20 bucks, but coming from Jack collecting his pennies it’s worth 20 million bucks to me and to our community. This gives me hope because this means it’s not one versus the other.”

Jack’s act of kindness has been praised on social media.

Speaking about the vandalism, Mr Naeem said it was “very unexpected and quite honestly shocking”.

Pflugerville Police said it was being investigated as a hate crime, according to Kxan.com.

Since the Paris terror attacks on Friday in which 129 people were killed, reportedly deliberate attacks have taken place on mosques in different countries.

Mr Naeem told ABC News: “It’s become so commonplace where something goes wrong somewhere and people want to blame all Muslims. If anything, it’s a pointing indictment of the logical fallacy in our society’s way of thinking.”

On Tuesday, Police Scotland said they were treating a fire at the Bishopbriggs Cultural Centre in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, which is used as a mosque, as “wilful fire-raising”.