Here we go again: Manhattan college investigates after Quran found in toilet. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

NEW YORK (AP) - A lower Manhattan college is investigating how a paperback copy of the Quran from the campus library ended up in a public toilet, school officials said Tuesday.

The discovery at Pace University was among three separate incidents in the past two weeks involving vandalism with racial or religious overtones. In the other two, racial slurs were scrawled on a student’s car parked at a satellite campus in Westchester County and on a bathroom wall at the downtown campus.

University President David A. Caputo said the incidents did not appear to be related. But he called them “deeply disturbing” and invited faculty and students to discuss them Tuesday afternoon at a meeting.

“One of our university’s greatest strengths is its diversity,” Caputo wrote in a letter describing the incidents. “However, when speech is hurtful towards a class of people or incites violence, we must condemn it and take measures to stop it.” The school’s security force was trying to identify the vandals so they could be disciplined, Caputo said.

The Council on American Islamic Relations, before any facts are known, is already screaming “Islamophobia!” and demanding that the incident be treated as a crime.

CAIR-NY TO TAKE PART IN MTG ON QURAN DESECRATION

(NEW YORK, NY, 10/3/06) - On Tuesday, October 3, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) will participate in a town hall meeting at Pace University to discuss a recent incident in which a Quran, Islam’s revealed text, was found in the toilet in a campus men’s room. CAIR-NY is calling on the university to treat the incident as a possible hate crime.

WHAT: Town Hall Meeting at Pace University
WHEN: Tuesday, October 3, 2006, 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Schimmel Center, Pace University (NYC campus)

CAIR-NY sees this incident as evidence of the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia in the United States and will encourage Pace University to hold more town hall meetings for the student population in order to create a better understanding of Islam.

CONTACT: Afsheen Shamsi, CAIR-NY Communications Director