Man is held after attempted fire-bombing of mosque

A man was charged last night in connection with the attempted fire-bombing of a mosque that also had its windows smashed and racist graffiti daubed on its walls.

A swastika was painted on the rear wall of the Jamia mosque in Swindon, Wiltshire, with the words: "Pakistanis and Jews go back to Auschwitz", while "Allah is a pervert" was sprayed on a side wall.

The attack on the mosque took place at around 2.20am yesterday morning.

The attacker broke a small window before lobbing a petrol bomb inside, but it failed to explode. There were no people in the mosque at the time of the attack.

Mansoor Ahmed Khan, 63, general secretary of the mosque, said: "This is a very cosmopolitan area... to insult Muslims and Jews is despicable, we have good community relations and the mosque will be open as usual on Friday. "

The Jamia mosque opened in 1978 and has a congregation of about 250 for Friday prayers. It is also used as a community conference centre and madrassa, or Islamic school.

The mosque has been attacked twice before ­ last September anti-Islamic and anti-Jewish graffiti was daubed on its walls and gas canisters left burning outside, but they failed to explode. On another occasion bricks were thrown through the window.

Police yesterday said that a 22-year-old man had been charged with seven offences, including arson, attempted arson and racially aggravated criminal damage. He is not a suspect in the previous attacks on the mosque.

He was remanded in custody and will appear before Swindon magistrates today.

This attack comes days after arsonists drilled a hole in the wall of a mosque in Basingstoke, Hampshire, and poured in an accelerant before lighting a match. The fire caused cost thousands of pounds of damage.