Philadelphia Muslims discover severed pig head at mosque

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A severed pig’s head has been found dumped next to a mosque in Philadelphia.

An attendant at the Al Aqsa Islamic Society discovered the head at about 6am on Monday, which is now being investigated as a possible hate crime.

The incident comes amid an apparent rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, manifest both in attacks on places of worship and the campaign of Donald Trump, a Republican presidential ticket frontrunner.

Islamophobic attacks in the US have surged in 2015. Muslim rights advocacy group The Council on American-Islamic relations (CAIR) reported in July that the number of attacks on mosques had surpassed the total number for all of 2014.

Mr Trump on Monday called to bar Muslims from entering the United States in the wake of an attack perpetrated by self-professed adherents of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) killed 14 people last week in San Bernadino, California.

As in Judaism, Islam prohibits the consumption of pork and Muslims consider pig flesh to be unclean.

“For me, this doesn’t mean much. It happens a lot,” a woman told The Independent over the phone on condition of anonymity, because she had not received permission from Islamic Society officials to speak with the press.

Another mosque community member confirmed that a severed pig’s head was found, but referred The Independent to the mosque’s leadership, who were not immediately available for comment.

Philadelphia police told The Independent that they were gathering more information on the incident. Last month, following deadly ISIS-backed attacks on Paris entertainment venues that left 130 dead, the mosque received a telephone message saying, “Are you happy about what happened in France?” “God is a pig!” “God is Pork!” police said. Police added that they had obtained a number from the phone's caller ID.

The Associated Press reported that an investigation into the incident is ongoing after security cameras captured footage of a red pickup truck apparently circling the block and throwing something from the passenger seat window.