AUSTIN, Texas — Members of a Muslim community center in North Austin are finishing up repairs after vandals caused thousands of dollars in damages.
Someone broke windows and two doors early Sunday morning and some fear it could be a hate crime.
As of Thursday evening, the two broken doors were fixed - a big change from just a few days ago.
Photos from Sunday show shattered glass at the front and side entrances of the North Austin Muslim Community Center. Multiple windows were also broken.
The center's vice president said security footage shows a man using a rock to break the glass. He said the man even slashed a member's tire.
But despite the scare, those who attend services tell KVUE they're choosing to not live in fear.
"It shocked me, but it did not prevent me to keep going here,” said Reynaldy Fifariz, attends regularly.
“Typical hate crimes would be vandalism or harassment,” said Renee Lafair, Anti-Defamation League Austin.
Lafair said they reached out to APD to make sure this is being looked into as a possible hate crime.
ADL focuses on fighting hate and has created a heat map to help track incidents.
It shows the organization received 32 reports of hate incidents in Austin just this past year.
“There were five white supremacist events that we tracked,” said Lafair. “There was 15 incidents of white supremacist propaganda mostly on college campuses and 12 anti-Semitic instances last year."
Two and a half years ago, in the greater-Austin area, police investigated a hate crime at the Islamic Center of Pflugerville after they said members found a torn up Quran covered in feces.
These are the incidents that ADL is fighting to stop.
“If we can all stand up together in solidarity against these things actually that is the silver lining,” said Lafair. “To show that we are a greater community and we're not going to tolerate when people are hateful."
Members of the center said they have a very strong community and they are making safety changes. In addition to adding security teams to watch at night, they're also looking into getting better quality security cameras.