oped: Good idea...non violent protest:)
(CNN) -- Muslims in Switzerland are responding with shock and outrage after a pig carcass and severed swine heads were discovered buried at the site of a proposed mosque.
(CNN) -- Muslims in Switzerland are responding with shock and outrage after a pig carcass and severed swine heads were discovered buried at the site of a proposed mosque.
Police in the town of
Grenchen uncovered the pigs Friday after they received an anonymous
message claiming that someone had buried the body parts and spilled 120
liters of blood from the animals in an effort to desecrate the ground to
halt the construction of the mosque.
Pork and pork byproducts are haram, or forbidden, in Islam.
The unsigned flier,
written in German, says "This operation was done (conducted) to protest
against the growing expansion of Islam in Switzerland," and says that a
similar desecration in Spain earlier halted another mosque construction
project.
Thomas Suber, chief of
the Solothurn Canton police, told CNN by phone that there were no
suspects currently, but that a full investigation is under way.
"We can't say yet it is a hate crime in those words, but it could have been done to stop the mosque," said Suber.
Suber said that whoever is responsible may be brought up on environmental pollution charges.
The police chief says
that veterinary health officials have been called in to find if pig's
blood has in fact been spilled, and that charges may be filed over
illegal dumping of animal parts in addition to other potential criminal
charges.
But for Muslims in Switzerland, it's just the latest sign that they are being victimized by some in the far right.
Abdel Azziz Qaasim Illi,
spokesman for Switzerland's Central Islamic Council said the deed
"crossed a line" that had already been pushed against Muslims since a
popular referendum in 2009 banned the construction of new minarets.
"Since the ban on
minarets there's been an increase in Islamophobia and Islamophobic
events, so it was not really surprising" said Illi. "But it is an
escalation in Switzerland because this is a peaceful country where
Christians and Muslims have all been living together... and we are a bit
afraid this may increase."
There are an estimated
500,000 Muslims in Switzerland, out of a population of more than 7
million says Illi, who admitted that the population is rising but that
most Swiss Muslims were immigrants from Albania and elsewhere in the
Balkans, where there is a tradition of moderate Islam.
The property had been
purchased by the local Muslim community several years ago from a Swiss
far right political activist. The man claimed that he had not been
informed that it would be used for a mosque and had fought the sale in
court, before ultimately losing his civil case recently allowing
construction to go forward.
"We can just wait for the next rain or snowfall to cleanse the ground, so we do not fear from this side anything," said Illi.
"But on the other hand
it's an emotional thing, it means that there are actually people in this
society who deny the right of Muslims when it comes to a mosque in
Switzerland and this is something that hurts us."
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