Pig’s head nailed to mosque door as anti-Muslim hate crime increase in Austria

The pig’s head attached to a mosque door in Vienna. Photo: HaberJournal

Part of a pig’s head and some pork tripe was left hanging on the door of a mosque in Vienna on Christmas day.

The imam of the Kocatepe mosque condemned the vandalism as an “unacceptable” act.

The head of the Turkish-Islamist Union in Vienna (ATIB), Fatih Karadaş, also condemned the attack saying that “this is not an attack against Muslims but the whole of humanity. We, as Muslims, will preserve our calm and collective attitude.”

Austria’s Muslim community has been attacked several times during 2014 in similar hate crimes.

Imam Hatip School in Vienna was also vandalized. A pig’s head was left in front of the school’s door during Ramadan in early October.

In August, a pig’s head was impaled on a fence at a construction site for a new Islamic school. 

Another mosque called Eyüp Sultan, located in the town of Telfs, was repeatedly vandalized with graffiti.

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Violent attacks

In a more serious incident, an elderly Muslim woman was attacked in a bank, which was allegedly motivated by religious intolerance.

In September, a Muslim woman was attacked by another woman on a train, apparently because the former was wearing a hijab.

In August two elderly Muslim ladies wearing the hijab were attacked in Favoritenstraße. Police were reportedly slow to respond to this incident, and only began questioning suspects days after.

Austria’s Islamic Religious Community Association said that Muslims often experience discrimination in Austria but that “it is not well documented”.

Spokeswoman Carla Amina Baghajati said that the association plans to start collecting data on all religiously motivated incidents.

However, she said she did not believe that the police lacked sensitivity to the issue.

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