Surveillance cameras at An-Noor mosque in Bridgeport captured a person setting two bags of pork products in front of the mosque’s entrance on Saturday. Leaders at the mosque filed a report to the city’s police department, but before the police released the results of the investigation, the same thing happened again on Monday.
“Leaving a bag of pork at a mosque, especially during the sacred month of Ramadan, is a blatant act of disrespect and intimidation,” said Farhan Memon, Connecticut chair for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
“This isn't just an isolated incident. It's really a targeted attack on the Muslim community and an attempt to disrupt our religious observances.”
Memon said he’s sure the act was a purposefully hateful one; Muslims don’t eat pork, and the bags were filled with bacon and other pork products.
In addition to both incidents being reported to the Bridgeport police, Memon said CAIR has contacted Connecticut’s Hate Crime Investigative Unit. A recent CAIR report showed complaints to the group concerning anti-Muslim acts have risen 178% in recent months; those numbers are in response to the war in Gaza, Memon said.
For all houses of worship, keeping communities safe isn’t cheap.
“Security costs thousands of dollars for mosques and other houses of worship,” Memon said.
“It's really sad, because usually we want houses of worship to be a place of spirituality where people go to find peace and community. And instead, they're being turned into armed forts.”
Reports from the Bridgeport Police Department are yet to be released.
