A Chattanooga man was arrested on charges alleging he urinated on the doorstep of a local mosque.
Sawyer Byers, 28, is charged with indecent exposure and vandalism for the Feb. 24 incident. He was arrested Thursday.
Hammad El-Ameen, imam at Masjid Muhammad, the mosque at the Islamic Center on Cemetery Avenue, told police two men had vandalized the mosque's property around 11 p.m. and that a doorbell camera had captured them doing it.
One man allegedly kicked one of the mosque's windows, while another urinated next to the center's front door, according to an affidavit.
El-Ameen told police he believes this most recent incident was retaliation for speaking out against Shady's Corner, a bar on the same block that opened last year.
"Anytime you urinate on a religious facility, you're just displaying your emotion for that place," El-Ameen said by phone.
(READ MORE: Neighbors say Shady's Corner traffic and noise disrupt mosque, neighbors)
In August, El-Ameen told members of Chattanooga's Beer and Wrecker Board that Shady's customers frequently urinate, smoke and talk about vulgar things outside the center's windows. The imam shared videos that showed young people talking and smoking outside, lying down on the center's doorstep and, in one case, loudly chanting "Shady's Corner" while walking past.
El-Ameen said this week that in the months since, the mosque and its members have continued to deal with difficulty parking, trash and dog waste around the mosque and people talking into the doorbell camera by its entrance.
El-Ameen offered a reward to encourage people to identify the men seen in the video and said he was grateful to receive lots of tips. A former co-worker of Byers identified him to police, according to the affidavit.
An attorney representing Byers told police Byers intended to turn himself in and identify himself as the person seen urinating on the building.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations this week called for authorities to investigate the incident as a possible bias-motivated or hate crime. El-Ameen said he believes it was motivated by hate.
"Given the recent spike in anti-Muslim bigotry we have witnessed nationwide, it would only make sense for law enforcement authorities to consider a possible bias motive for this incident," council spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said in a news release Monday.
According to his attorney, Byers said he was not aware the building was a mosque and did not mean to deface it because of religious beliefs, the affidavit states.
A review of Byers' social media found a photo showing his brother, who may match the description of the second man who reportedly kicked the center's window seal, police reported. He has not been arrested or charged, but police have taken out warrants for him, the report said.
El-Ameen said he believes the incident would never have happened had the Beer Board not reversed its decision to deny Shady's a permit based on its proximity to the Islamic Center. The zoning in that area overrules a beer code rule that prohibits bars near schools or churches. The Beer Board is considering changes to that rule, but not to the zoning law.
"There's no other bar that I know of in Chattanooga that is 10, 20 feet from a religious facility," he said. "Everybody knows this but won't say it — that bar would not be there if that was a white neighborhood and a white Christian church."
The center bought the building between it and Shady's after a Baptist church that had operated there for around 30 years left due to the bar moving in, El-Ameen said.
The neighborhood itself is largely Black, but the people causing trouble for the mosque are primarily white, El-Ameen said.
"They don't care about the neighborhood," he said. "They're screaming, they're drunk, intoxicated, acting rude and then they leave."
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.
Staff photo by Ellen Gerst / Shady's Corner, a bar opened in April, sits next to the annex hall of the Islamic Center, seen in August.