Man arrested in arson fire at Houston Islamic center

Authorities said Monday that a homeless man has been arrested and charged with arson for a fire that destroyed an Islamic community center in the U.S. city of Houston.

Houston fire officials said in a press conference held Monday night that Darryl Ferguson, 55, a homeless man who lives near the center, has been arrested and charged with felony first degree arson for the fire.

Officials said Ferguson "rolled up on his bicycle" to speak to them about the fire during an on-scene investigation Monday.

The suspect admitted to setting fire to the building, but investigators did not discuss a potential motive. They said he acted alone.

The fire was started on Friday at a building in the Quba Islamic Institute in southeast Houston. From the beginning the institute believed it was set on purpose as investigators found an accelerant present at the site of the fire.

The Texas office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization, has called on state and federal authorities to investigate the fire as a possible hate crime.

The fire came only several days after three Muslim students were shot and killed by a white neighbor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Though police said preliminary inquiries indicated the murder was probably motivated by a parking dispute, the victims' families insisted it was a hate crime and called on an FBI inquiry into the case.

The consecutive events have sparked concerns among Muslims living across the United States that the victims and the Islamic center were targeted because of their religion.

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