Man in Florida arrested over desecrating mosque
A man has been arrested in the US state of Florida after desecrating and vandalizing a mosque amid an Islamophobia hike in the United States.
Michael Wolfe, 35, was being held on Tuesday after surveillance video showed him using a machete to break windows, lights and cameras at the Masjid al-Mumin mosque in Titusville.
The man also left raw bacon at the front door of the mosque, Titusville police said in a brief statement.
"While we welcome the prompt arrest made by Titusville police department, we urge that this case be prosecuted as a hate crime," said Rasha Mubarak of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group.
CAIR says cases of vandalism, damage and destruction of mosques reached a record high in 2015 since the organization began tallying incidents in 2009.
The use of pork as a means of intimidation qualifies as hate crime as the consumption of pig meat is forbidden by Islam.
Islamophobia particularly spiked in the US after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a "complete" ban on Muslims entering the country.
This was at least the third report of vandals leaving pork at US mosques in less than a month.
Last month, pork was left on the door handle of the Masjid-e-Tawheed mosque in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a pig's head was thrown near the al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to CAIR.
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