A mosque in Pierrefonds is now under the watchful electronic eyes of 13 wall-mounted video cameras with night vision after it suffered its third vandalism attack since the beginning of the year.

"It cost us thousands of dollars," said Mukalah-al Mukarrammah mosque's president Salim Devji. However, the security measure is expected to create some safety for the small congregation of 200.

Mohammed Lawal, an executive member of the mosque's council, said he discovered one of the glass panes of the main entrance's door broken after arriving to the mosque in the early hours of May 24. Montreal police from Station 3, a stone's throw away from the mosque on Gouin Boulevard, arrived immediately, he said, and has been very co-operative.

"May God forgive them," Lawal said of the vandals responsible for the attack. Though the incident occurred a few days after the release of the Bouchard-Taylor report on reasonable accommodations, both Lawal and Devji dismissed any possible links, since the mosque was also previously vandalized in April and January.

"We are a peaceful community, I don't understand why this happens," Devji said.

Lawal was alone inside the mosque last Friday morning as contractors put the finishing touches on the cameras outside. However, he would have company soon enough as the Friday prayer sessions were to begin. "We never cancel our prayer sessions," he told The Chronicle when asked if the vandalism acts have ever been cause for an interruption in services.

Previously the mosque had a front window smashed on April 21, while members of the congregation were inside, Lawal said. They ran outside but the perpetrator had disappeared by then. Police made a sweep of the area after a phone call, Lawal said, but nobody was found.

Earlier this year on Jan. 21, a window was broken.

Lawal said it is unclear whether the three incidents are related, although police are looking into that possibility.

"We know the suspect threw a rock sometime on the night of May 23 or during the early hours of the morning on May 24," said Station 3 community relations officer Dan Maheu. "There are no witnesses or clues beyond this."

Maheu added a phone call was placed to the station at around 4 a.m. the day Lawal and other members of the congregation discovered the misdeed. "We're investigating it now," he told The Chronicle.