"Two women were seen by a guard throwing the three pork legs onto the driveway of the proposed Al-Nur Islamic Center in Ontario at about 9:45 p.m. (Tuesday) and sped away in a white pickup truck."
Source/Credit: The Sun | San Bernardino
By Doug Saunders | August 8, 2012
ONTARIO - Pig parts were thrown onto the proposed site of an Islamic center this week, prompting an investigation by the Sheriff's Department and interest from the FBI.
Those who adhere to the Muslim religion are forbidden to consume the flesh of swine.
After the slaughter at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, leaders of an Islamic center proposed on unincorporated land near Ontario hired an outside security agency to keep worshippers safe.
"Two women were seen by a guard throwing the three pork legs onto the driveway of the proposed Al-Nur Islamic Center in Ontario at about 9:45 p.m. (Tuesday) and sped away in a white pickup truck," said Rashid Achmed, chairman of the center.
San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies were called out to the 4700 block of Phillips Boulevard to investigate the incident.
"We have an ongoing investigation into this incident," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Anthony Vega said. "We are not looking into this as a hate crime for the moment, but as an act of vandalism at a place of worship."
The Muslim civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations has asked that the Department of Justice intervene and investigate this as well.
"We were just made aware of this today," FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller said.
"Our agents have reached out to local law enforcement, and we are looking into the incident at this time."
In a letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, the council urged the government to open a hate-crime investigation.
"Only firm action by local, state and federal law enforcement authorities will send the message that bias-motivated attacks on Muslims, or Americans of any faith, will not be tolerated," CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said.
Plans for the proposed mosque are still in the approval process. Some nearby residents have expressed opposition, Munira Syeda, spokeswoman for CAIR, said Friday.
Some worry that the mosque will create traffic and other problems, but some simply do not want a Muslim house of worship in the city, she said.
"Unfortunately, there's a wave of anti-Islamic sentiment around the country," Syeda said. "It's a time for Americans to remember our values of pluralism and diversity."
The incident took place two days after a gunman opened fire at a Wisconsin temple, killing six worshippers along with himself in the most recent act of domestic terrorism, and days after four teenagers were arrested for allegedly throwing lemons and oranges at a mosque in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Hayward.
"Unfortunately this disgusting movement happens all the time all over the U.S.," Cal State San Bernardino associate professor Brian Levin said. "We are seeing a rise in hate crimes across the nation and more recently in our own backyard."
Four Hayward boys, ages 13 to 16, were arrested on suspicion of vandalism that interfered with the civil rights of the worshippers.
"We're scared," Achmed said, "but we will not be intimidated."
Reach Doug via email, or call him at 909-386-3925, or find him on Twitter @crimeshutterbug
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