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CAIR Bulletin – July 4, 3006
Pig's head thrown into Maine mosque during prayers
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 4, 2006 - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called for stepped up outreach efforts by the Muslim community in Maine after a severed pig's head was thrown into one of that state's mosques during prayers.
CAIR said the frozen pig's head was rolled into the Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center late Monday as worshipers bowed in prayer. The Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said the use of pigs or pork products is a favorite theme of Islamophobic bigots who wish to attack or insult Muslims. Muslims are prohibited from eating pork.
A 33-year-old Lewiston man told police on Tuesday that he had thrown the head into the mosque. He was charged with desecration of a church, a misdemeanor, and is out on bail.
"All Americans should be able to offer prayers in their houses of worship without fear of attack or intimidation," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "We urge Muslims in Maine to increase their outreach efforts to educate people of other faiths about Islam."
Hooper suggested a mosque open house and participation in CAIR's "Explore the Quran" and "Explore the Life of Muhammad" campaigns. He said CAIR's research shows that anti-Muslim prejudice decreases when people get to know ordinary Muslims and when they have access to accurate information about Islam.
Lewiston is home to some 2,500 Somali Muslim refugees. Somalis began moving to the state in 2001 in search of safer streets and cheaper housing. In 2002, the mayor of Lewiston set off a national controversy by asking Somali community leaders to stop the influx.
Boston Globe report on the hate incident
LEWISTON, Maine, July 4, 2006 --A group of Muslim men praying at a Lewiston mosque were thrown for a jolt when somebody threw a severed pig's head into the mosque. Police arrested a man on Tuesday who said he thought it was a joke.
A frozen pig's head slightly larger than a basketball was rolled into the Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center on Lisbon Street at about 10:15 p.m. Monday, witnesses told the Sun Journal of Lewiston.
Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims, who are barred from eating pork, and the act was viewed as a deliberate insult upon the religion. "We cannot eat it. We cannot even sit next to someone who is eating it," said a man who identified himself as Omar S.
When the incident occurred, about 40 men were bowed down as part of their prayer ritual. When the pig's head rolled in, the men got up and ran outside but were unable to locate anyone. None of the men were hit by the animal head.
Lewiston police bagged the head as evidence and took it to the police station, witnesses said. Police Lt. Mark Watson said the head was then disposed of.
Brent Matthews, 33, of Lewiston, came to the police department on Tuesday, told a detective he had thrown the head and was charged with desecration of a church, a misdemeanor. The charge is considered a hate-bias crime, so Matthews' case will be referred to the Attorney General's office for further investigation, Lt. Don Mailhot said.
Matthews, who was out on bail, "admitted to doing it," Mailhot said. "He thought it was funny; it was going to be a big joke. The police department doesn't anything like that lightly."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2006/07/04/severed_pigs_head_thrown_into_mosque_during_prayer_session/
Hate crimes against Mosques in Paris and Moscow:
Haaretz – July 3, 2006
Paris mosque plastered with racist graffiti, swastikas
Vandals painted swastikas and anti-Muslim slogans on a mosque in the Parisian suburb of Courcouronnes, a mosque official said Monday.
Abderrahmane Ammari said "extremists" attacked the walls of the mosque early Sunday, covering the exterior walls with slogans including "Islam go home," "France is white" and "We fight against Islam" early Sunday morning.
He said this was the second time in a little more than a year that vandals damaged the mosque of Evry-Courcouronne, located in a heavily immigrant town some 25 kilometers south of Paris.
Local officials "responded very quickly," removing most traces of the racist slurs soon after it was discovered, Ammari said. "Everyone was mobilized and there was absolute cooperation" between officials at the mosque and local authorities, Ammari said.
France, home to western Europe's largest population of both Muslims and Jews, has faced an upsurge in anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic violence in recent years. It leveled off only to resurface late last year and in early 2006, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has said.
Sarkozy said earlier this year that neo-Nazi groups now count about 3,000
members.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/734168.html
MosNews – July 4, 2006
Mosque destroyed in terror attack near Moscow
The blast occurred in the town of Yakhroma, northwards from the capital. The building of the mosque was seriously damaged, a senior Muslim cleric told IslamNews news agency. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the explosion. Investigation into the attack has been launched.
A mosque employee told the agency that the blast had entirely destroyed the main entrance, windows were broken. “Judging by the damage inflicted the explosive device was much more powerful than a grenade,” he said.
The mosque in Yakhroma was raised five years ago and belongs to the spiritual Muslim council for western Russia, led by the country’s top cleric Ravil Gainutdin. The building is formally a prayer house, as the local government rejected the council’s application to register it as a mosque, Gazeta.Ru reported.
Ironically, the attack occurred on the day religious leaders from around the globe convened in the Russian capital for a world religious summit to address global challenges ahead of the G8 summit in St. Petersburg.
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/07/04/mosqueblast.shtml
Boston Globe – July 4, 2006
Mediating the mosque dispute in Boston
By Charles A. Radin
A group of prominent Christian and Jewish leaders has begun trying to settle quietly a bitter dispute over construction of a mosque in Roxbury that has deeply strained relations between Muslims and Jews in Greater Boston.
The 40-member panel of ministers, priests, rabbis, and laymen has talked with both sides in the battle: a Jewish group that accuses the mosque's developers of anti-Semitic views and terrorist sympathies, and the Muslim group building the mosque, which has sued the Jewish group and several of its allies for defamation and conspiracy.
Each side presented its case to the panel and was told that court was not the place to resolve the dispute, according to participants in the reconciliation effort.
The religious leaders fear that the acrimony and public posturing that have accompanied complex legal maneuvers will poison inter-religious relations in the wider community and create resentment that will endure even if the disagreements are resolved in the courts.
The Islamic Society of Boston, the Cambridge-based organization designated by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to build New England's largest mosque on a 1.9-acre site in Roxbury Crossing, presented its view of the conflict to members of the inter-religious center May 11. The David Project, a Jewish leadership center, made its presentation on June 12.
Leaders of the two sides did not respond to calls about the inter-religious initiative. Their lawyers said they welcomed any attempt by respected religious leaders to learn the facts of the situation, but both also said that the facts prove their side is right. Both affirmed their willingness to continue the legal battle.
Rabbi David M. Gordis, president of Hebrew College, said the effort to calm the conflict over the mosque and move toward an out-of-court settlement is a project of the Inter-religious Center on Public Life, a group created through unusual collaborations that have developed between the college and Andover Newton Theological School in the four years since they began operating from a single campus in Newton.
Jewish and Christian scholars and clergy at the two schools have long tried to foster good relations with the Muslim community, Gordis said, ``and then this whole sad situation [over the mosque project] came to the fore and threatened the positive relations that were developing."….
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/07/04/mediating_the_mosque_dispute/
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