Pig Head Left At A Philadelphia Mosque; A Response To San Bernardo Killings And Islamic Attacks?
Philadelphian Police increased their patrol as the city's mayor offered a reward of $2,000 leading to the arrest of the person responsible for leaving a severed pig's head in front of a mosque, as reported by Newsweek.
The caretaker found the pig's head on early Monday morning at the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society mosque, according to sources. As seen on a surveillance video outside the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, on Germantown Avenue near Jefferson Street, the pig's head was thrown out of a red pick-up late Sunday evening, courtesy of Philly.
The local police and FBI affirmed that they are reviewing the case, though it was too early for them to determine the charges, according to sources.
In an interview with Philly, Officer Pete Berndlmaier issued a statement.
"We've got to be involved," said the 26th District police. "If they get away doing something like that, they are going to up the ante."
The executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human rights, Rue Landau, expressed that the event could be a violation of the city's law on institutional vandalism and ethnic intimidation, as stated by Philly.
The head of the Arab American Development Corp., Marwan Kreidie, said that anti-Muslim sentiment is "worse now" than after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, as reported by Usatoday.
"We didn't have this kind of reaction, nobody threw a pig's head," she expressed to Philly. "A pig's head doesn't do much. Could the next thing be a pipe bomb?"
In an interview, the manager of the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, Nabil Khalil, said that the incident wasn't the first time the mosque was targeted, courtesy of Nbcphiladelphia. Shortly after the Paris terror attacks dealt by the Islamic State, an unidentified man left a threating voicemail at the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society mosque, according to source.
Moreover, the events that took place came less than a week after the San Bernardino killings that left 14 Californians dead and 21 wounded, as stated by the source.
"There is no place in our City for this kind of behavior," Mayor Nutter said. "It is an ignorant act of a person or persons who are acting against all the values that we hold dear as Americans."
