The father of a Muslim student at Elmhurst College who was attacked by a masked gunman Thursday night in a campus bathroom said someone scrawled a swastika and anti-Muslim graffiti on her locker about a week ago. Authorities labeled the attack a hate crime Friday.
The college was briefly locked down after the 8:30 p.m. attack in a lower-level women's bathroom at the college's Schaible Science Center.
An ambulance was called but the student declined further medical treatment.
In an advisory posted on the college Web site today, the university called the attack an "aggravated battery / hate crime." The advisory also said that the attacker, described as about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, struck the woman with a firearm and that anti-Muslim graffiti was found in the restroom.
Reached by telephone Friday morning, the victim's father said she entered the bathroom yesterday and found a man there armed with a gun and wearing a black ski mask. The Tribune is not naming the victim at the father's request.
"He said, 'Now who is going to protect you?' " the victim's father said. " 'And she said that, 'God will protect me ... You can kill me, but you cannot take my soul.' She fought for her life, and that's how God saved her."
The gunman then backed off, he said.
Last week someone scrawled a swastika and wrote the anti-Muslim graffiti on the 19-year-old victim's locker, her father said. She was stunned that somebody on campus would target her, he said. Seeking to work through her feelings, she wrote a poem that addressed her tormenter, calling for respect.
Because of campus outrage about the graffiti, Thursday's peace rally drew twice the number of participants as last year, the father said. The victim didn't want to speak after what had gone on, preferring to be private, he said. But the students nudged her and urged her to speak, so she read her poem.
"And that poem is so heart-touching," her father said, "like somebody's trying to say, 'You believe in hate; I believe in love. I believe in care. I believe in respect.'
"These are girls that are just going to college, and extremely peaceful and law-abiding persons -- and to say things like that to them."
The victim previously attended the Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park, her father said. Phone calls to the school went unanswered.
The college said there will be a student gathering today on the school quad in response to the attack in the bathroom.
About 3,300 students are enrolled at the west suburban college.
College president S. Alan Ray, in a statement on the school Web site, said the campus was "shocked and saddened" by the attack.
Ray listed a series of steps that the college will take to beef up security for staff and students. Elmhurst Police will patrol the school by foot and car, and detectives were seeking to talk to anyone with information about the incidents, he stated.
Some low-usage buildings were to be locked earlier than usual today, and counselors were available to talk with students. Campus Security also offered to escort Muslim students around the campus -- and other students or staff could request escorts as well, Ray added.
He said, "I encourage all members of our community to cooperate fully with law enforcement in its investigation of this despicable incident. Help law enforcement by sharing any information you have. My prayers and thoughts go out to all of you but especially to our Muslim students."
Soofia Ahmed, president of the Muslim Students Association, said three Muslim students wearing headscarves had faced verbal attacks during a peace rally on Sept. 18 in the student cafeteria organized to protest the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Since then, she said, "it's all kind of spiraled out of control."
"I'm not sure what the root cause is or why they feel that way," Ahmed said Friday.