DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Officials are investigating a fire at a vacant building in Daytona Beach that was formerly a YMCA.
According to the Volusia County Fire Department, the Islamic Center of Daytona Beach had recently finalized plans to turn the building at 825 Derbyshire Road into a mosque.
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"With the heightened anti-Islamic rhetoric and Islamophobic hate crimes on the rise, the Council on American Islamic Relations Florida is taking this incident very seriously," said Rasha Mubarak, with CAIR. "We are in the process of reaching out to the mosque leaders and are waiting for the results of this investigation."
Officials did not say they suspected the fire had any connection to the plans of the building becoming a mosque.