A gang of racists targeted a mosque in Bristol by leaving bacon outside the building and shouting abuse at worshippers, the Bristol Post reports.
Reports on a community Facebook page claims that a group of men turned up outside the Bristol Jamia Mosque on Green Street in the Totterdown area yesterday.
It has been alleged that the gang hung up bacon outside the mosque, as well as displaying a flag reading “No Mosques”, despite the attempts of people living nearby who tried to get them to move on.
Police, who were called to the scene at around 12.50pm, said two men and one woman were involved in the incident, which is being treated as a hate crime. A 34 year-old man was arrested and remains in custody.
Rabia Zaheer, who witnessed the attack, told the Daily Mail: “Pig meat was hung outside at prayer time and they hung their flag up.
“The worst thing is they decided to hang around and hurl abuse at the elderly men trying to pray.
“The locals did try to intervene and shout the scum down. Police are involved and the CCTV is being checked.
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“Typical – they attack on a day when it’s mostly elderly men at the mosque and no young ones.
“I’ve lived here all my life and nothing like this has ever happened before.”
Sympathy cards and flowers were left outside the main entrance of the mosque this morning, where the bacon had been just hours before.
Police Chief Inspector Kevan Rowlands said: “Behaviour of this kind is totally unacceptable.
“Our communities have the right to live and worship peacefully without fear of being targeted for their race or religion.
“We take all hate crime incidents extremely seriously and we are working closely with the mosque to ensure the offenders are held to account for their abhorrent actions.”
Bristol Jamia Mosque, which can accommodate 840 worshippers, was the first to be opened in the city in 1968 and is the largest mosque in the south west of England.
