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Montgomery County Police from the 6th District are investigating the incident, said Officer Oliver Janney, a county police spokesman.
A congregation member at the mosque saw a sedan enter the horseshoe-shaped driveway and circle around the center as the driver shot paint balls at the building's walls, said Nadeem Ahmad of Ijamsville, chairman of the mosque's board of trustees. Mosque leaders are reviewing surveillance tapes to see if they can provide more evidence to police, Ahmad said.
The mosque alerted public officials and neighboring churches, Church of the Redeemer and Interdenominational Church of God, both also on Route 124.
"Unfortunately, it's a fairly regular phenomenon, we see this kind of vandalism at mosques around the country," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR plans to explore the incident through its civil rights division, Hooper said.
Mosque leaders are considering installing removable barriers at the center's driveway entrances and making improvements to the security monitoring system, said Ahmad.