Before Donald Trump made his statement to “ban all Muslims” from America on Monday [December 7], a pig’s head was left in front of a Philadephia mosque as the latest in a list of growing anti-Muslim incidents around the country.
On Monday morning, a caretaker for the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society found a bloody, severed pig’s head, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Independent investigations regarding the incident have been going on by the Philadelphia Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported there was surveillance footage that shows someone driving past the mosque and throwing an object at the building around 11 p.m. Sunday night. CAIR is asking that this incident be treated as a hate crime charge (Muslims do not eat pork as it is considered unclean).
According to Mashable, the Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Philadelphia, Jacob Bender, said that leaving a pig’s head at the door of a mosque is equivalent to “smearing feces on a door.” He called the act a “desecration.”
A similar incident happened in Australia, when someone left a pig’s head in a bathroom next to a Muslim prayer room at the University of Western Australia.
“We cannot allow hate to divide us now, in the face of unprecedented difficulties,” Philadelphia’s mayor-elect Jim Kenney said. “I ask all Philadelphians to join me in rejecting this despicable act and supporting our Muslim neighbors.”
