Police investigate report of pig’s head left outside mosque

A severed barbecued pig’s head was found outside of the Al-Asqa Islamic Society in North Philadelphia early Monday morning.

The law enforcement authorities are now reviewing surveillance footage of the mosque which shows a red pickup truck driving past the building twice just the previous night.

The incident has been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Philadelphia Police are investigating and taking the incident seriously. A pig’s head is especially offensive because Muslims, in accordance with the Quran, don’t eat pork.

Philadelphia police were interviewing potential witnesses Monday.

Kreidie, who called it a “hate-motivated” act, doesn’t believe anyone from the surrounding community was responsible for throwing the pig’s head.

“I don’t know if they want to treat us like pigs or we look like pigs or act like pigs”, said Nabil Khalil, the manager of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society. “If they get away doing something like that, they are going to up the ante”.

“Pigs are not kryptonite to Muslims, but the intent of that person was obviously a hate crime”, Marwan Kreidie, president of the Philadelphia Arab American Development Corporation, told Eyewitness News.

But he said he was unsure if the two incidents were related.

Hamad Hahsy came to Philadelphia 25 years ago from Afghanistan and said he has never faced discrimination as a Muslim in America, but knows he risks being perceived by some people in a negative way.

“The bigotry that desecrated Al-Aqsa mosque today has no place in Philadelphia”, Kenney said in a statement Monday.

Incidents of this kind have heightened Islamophobia in the United States, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump even proposing that Muslims should be stopped from entering the country, until authorities become more effective in combating and addressing terrorist attacks.

And on Sunday, a pig’s head was reportedly found in the bathroom of a university mosque in Australia.

There have been other stories of severed pig heads being left at mosques.