USA: Florida man jailed for 15 years for vandalising mosque

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Florida man Michael Wolfe, 37, was sentenced after pleading guilty to leaving bacon at the doorstep of a mosque and vandalising the place of worship.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The New Arab
By News Desk | December 16, 2017

A man who left raw bacon on the doorstep of a Florida mosque has been jailed for 15 years.

Michael Wolfe, 37, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to criminal mischief to a place of worship in a case considered a hate crime, said Todd Brown, spokesman for the state's attorney said.

CCTV of the 2016 incident shows Wolfe, with a shaved head and camouflage clothing, breaking windows, cameras and lights with a machete at the mosque in Titusville, Florida.

Muslims are prohibited from eating pork products including bacon, and hate groups have used pork products as a way to desecrate US mosques, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The Islamic Society of Central Florida Masjid Al-Munin Mosque agreed with prosecutors and defense attorneys in determining Wolfe's sentence, Brown said.

"The Florida Muslim Community is suffering an unprecedented number of hate crimes," Florida CAIR spokesman Wilfredo Ruiz said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"Multiple mosques and Islamic institutions have been broken into, vandalised, and even set on fire."

In Ausgust, a mosque in the US state of Minnesota was bombed as worshippers inside prepared for morning prayers, in what FBI investigators treated as a possible Islamophobic attack.

Wolfe was also sentenced to 15 years of probation, to be served after his prison sentence, Brown said.


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