California: Pig parts dumped as Muslims pray; hate crime probe urged

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About 20 members of the congregation were gathered for a late-evening Ramadan prayer when the carcass pieces were tossed onto the property.

Pig parts were left outside a planned Islamic mosque site in Ontario,
sparking calls for a hate crime investigation. 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Press Enterprise
By Ben Goad / David Olson | August 10, 2012

Two women hurled hunks of pig carcasses this week outside a San Bernardino County home where Muslims prayed inside, prompting calls for a federal hate crime investigation and stoking tension within the area’s Muslim community.

In a letter to the U.S. Justice Department, the Council on American-Islamic Relations urged federal prosecutors to launch a probe of the incident at the site of the proposed Al-Nur Islamic Center near Ontario. The letter said two women in a white pickup truck threw the carcass pieces at three different places at the mosque site shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, the council said.

Muslims are prohibited from eating pork or any pig byproducts. The act was especially offensive because it occurred during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the council’s Greater Los Angeles chapter.

“The intention was to create fear, intimidation and offense of the intended target,” Ayloush, said Friday, Aug. 10. “That’s the nature of a hate incident.”

Rashid Ahmed, the chairman of the mosque, said the live-in caretaker of the four-bedroom home where the mosque members were praying is worried for his safety — as are worshippers. On the other hand, he said he has received more than 200 emails supporting the mosque since the incident, including emails from Christians, Jews and Hindus.

About 20 members of the congregation were gathered for a late-evening Ramadan prayer when the carcass pieces were tossed onto the property, Ahmed said. A security guard witnessed the act, he said.

The Justice Department is aware of the incident and looking into the matter, spokesman Thom Mrozek said. He said he could not confirm whether a formal investigation is under way. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is investigating, spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.

Deputies were called to the property Wednesday morning and took a report for the alleged crime of vandalizing a place of worship, Bachman said. No arrests had been made.

The Islamic center was founded in 2000. About 70 people, mostly Bangladeshi, worship on Fridays at a temporary location in a Montclair office park. Ahmed said the congregation hopes to begin construction of the new, 7,000-square-foot building in 2013.

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved the project earlier this year, but opponents of the mosque have filed a lawsuit seeking to block it.

Victor Otten, a Torrance attorney who represents the opponents, said most of the plaintiffs are people who live near the mosque site.

They oppose it not because the congregants are Muslim, but because they believe the septic system in the area is inadequate for the proposed mosque and because the building would destroy the rural, single-family character of the neighborhood, Otten said.

Ayloush said such issues often veil religious-based opposition to mosques. Some of the opponents have vocalized their fears about Islam, he said. According to the letter sent to the Justice Department, members of the congregation recently have seen people parked near the site taking photos.

“There is no doubt that many people opposing this mosque are driven by ignorance and fear and bigotry,” he said.

A proposed mosque in Temecula also faced opposition, including protests and anti-Muslim epithets.
The City Council gave final approval to the project last year, and the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley announced this week that groundbreaking on the new building will begin in September.

The vandalism in Ontario is the latest in a string of perceived anti-Muslim acts around the country in recent days and weeks, Ayloush noted.

A Missouri mosque was destroyed in a fire that news reports say was suspicious; four teenagers were arrested Saturday for pelting worshippers at a Bay Area mosque with oranges and lemons; and a Rhode Island mosque was vandalized, he said.

Ayloush said the incidents may be related to an uptick in anti-Muslim rhetoric in recent weeks in the wake of allegations by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, of Muslim infiltration of the U.S. government.

“Every time a public official engages in a national process of demonization and dehumanization of Muslims, immediately afterward there is always an increase in hate incidents and hate crimes,” he said.

Follow Ben Goad on Twitter: @ben_goad



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