RACIST graffiti painted in full view of a mosque has been condemned as ignorant and insulting . The words, blanked out in our picture, were painted on the side of the Lytton Theatre at The Sishes in Vardon Road, Stevenage, late last week. Underneath th

RACIST graffiti painted in full view of a mosque has been condemned as "ignorant" and "insulting".

The words, blanked out in our picture, were painted on the side of the Lytton Theatre at The Sishes in Vardon Road, Stevenage, late last week.

Underneath the racist remark was an arrow pointing towards the neighbouring Stevenage Central Mosque.

Muhammad Abdullah, 23, is a young member and volunteer at the mosque and he said the incident was an attempt to destabilise the good relationship the mosque has with its neighbours in Stevenage, and in particular the theatre.

He said: "I do think it is an insult on both of us. We are neighbours and we get on well. It's a pity that somebody has done this and it probably wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the recent news in the media.

Attempt to destabilise relationship mosque has with neighbours - claim "In the past we have invited people from other faith groups to our mosque and we regularly do inter-faith activities and there have never been any problems.

"It does hint at the level of someone of stupid intelligence and ignorance in trying to make Muslims feel agitated but we won't be intimidated by a small minority of people.

"I don't think anything like this has happened in Stevenage before, well not recently, and this one incident has made us both look silly."

Chris Hobbs, chairman of the Stevenage Lytton Players who are based at the theatre, agreed with Mr Abdullah's denouncement of the graffiti.

He said: "We're not in favour of any graffiti aimed or directed towards the mosque or any other religious building for that matter. It was removed on Sunday, I think.

"We have an amicable relationship with our neighbours and although there have been incidents in the past where windows in both the mosque and our theatre have been smashed, nothing like this has happened before. We therefore hope it is a one-off and we are fine with our neighbours.