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The blaze early on Friday at the Quba Islamic Institute
destroyed one of three buildings there, but no one was injured.
Fire officials said Darryl Ferguson, 55, confessed to causing
the fire.
Houston fire officials told reporters that Ferguson came to the
site of the fire on his bicycle on Monday, and detectives asked
if he wanted to talk to them. He said he did, and later
confessed to the fire.
The fire came days after a gunman shot dead three young Muslims
near the University of North Carolina. The incident drew
international attention and Muslim activists urged authorities
to investigate it as a possible hate crime.
Houston fire officials said on Monday authorities are still
investigating whether the alleged arson was a hate crime.
The institute has continued operating since the blaze.
The FBI, which is monitoring the investigation, says hate crimes
are fully or partly motivated by bias against race, religion,
ethnicity, disability, gender or sexual orientation. They
generally carry greater penalties.
(Reporting by Camilo Smith in Houston; Editing by Mary
Wisniewski and Chris Reese)
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