Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2013-11-20
A masjid in Fittja, south of Stockholm, Sweden has been desecrated and vandalized when pigs trotters were thrown inside shattering windows of it main door.
“Shortly before 11:00 am we received a call from the mosque in Fittja, the person had just arrived and found pig's trotters inside," police official Ulf Lindgren told Agence France Presse (AFP)
The incident was classified as an act of 'vandalism' and hate crime, according to the police reports.
Police said no suspects have been identified yet and security have been intensified around Fittja masjid to find clues for the racial incident.
Sweden, which like much of Scandinavia, is traditionally known to be a very tolerant country, is seeing a gradual increase in Islamophobic incidents.
In August, a pregnant Muslim woman was hospitalized after being attacked because of her headscarf. This led to a mass headscarf campaign, where Muslims and non-Muslims alike donned the headscarf in support of women’s rights to dress as they please.
The masjid, which was built in 2007, is the only masjid in Sweden that calls out the athaan (call to prayer) on Fridays and attracts up to 1,500 worshippers.
Earlier in April 2013, local police ruled to allow athaan at Fittja masjid in the southern Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka on Fridays.
The permission allows Muslims to raise the Adhan for three to five minutes between 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm on Fridays.
The move came in response to a request by Muslims to raise their call for prayers from the Fittja masjid, the only Muslim worship place that has a minaret in Sweden.
Almost 500,000 Muslims live in Sweden, making up around 5% of Sweden’s overall population
(Twitter: @Faizie143 )
0 Comments