The number “1143” was scrawled on the gate and the wall of the mosque overnight Thursday, which Portugese police said is generally used by neo-Nazi groups, according to media reports.
The numbers “1143” reference the year a treaty was signed that gave Portugal independence.
“It’s a provocation,” after the attack against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo which killed 12, “but we don’t feel threatened,” imam David Munir told Portuguese paper Publico.
Police confirmed to AFP there was graffiti on the mosque, but declined to speculate on any far-right connection.
The imam had just the day before called the Charlie Hebdo attack that left 12 dead, including some of the magazine’s top cartoonists, an “act of barbarity” that “has nothing to do with Islam.”
Muslim places of worship in several French towns have been targeted since Wednesday’s killings at Charlie Hebdo. The attacks, which have included shots being fired, have not harmed anyone.
Agence France-Presse
