Hear about the Stockport terror attack on Friday? Didn’t think so!

A truly disgusting and reprehensible act of hatred carried out by two as yet unidentified perpetrators has left attendees of the Heatons Muslims Community Trust (HMCT) in shock and fear. At approximately 21:15 on Friday, a pig’s head was found on the roof of the mosque, which is located in the Heaton suburb of Stockport, Greater Manchester. It is understood that Greater Manchester police have classed the incident as a hate crime. [1]

Alarmingly, one of the mosque’s trustees has described worshippers as feeling “terrified” and “worried”. A number of local Muslim families send their children to the Islamic centre for Qur’ān and Arabic classes – they are now concerned that such an attack may reoccur.

Muhammad Tayyab Mohiuddin, one of the trustees at HMCT, told the broadcaster Sky News,

“Parents are worried to send their kids, especially if someone is targeting the mosque… [We] have spoken to the police and have been told it is logged as a hate crime.” [1]

Mohiuddin rightly added,

“We have a lot of elderly people and a lot of children who use the centre and obviously they are a bit terrified that someone is targeting us and fear in the future someone could go further.” [1]

The Heatons Muslims Community Trust is a modestly sized and long-serving Islamic establishment that is open for the five daily prayers and provides educational services to children and the wider community. In addition, the trust sees a lot of older attendees and Friday’s unwarranted and heinous attack has understandably been most unsettling.

How did this happen?

Questions have been raised as to how such a despicable attack could occur, and whether the police have leads on the perpetrators.

All praise is due to Allah; Mohiuddin told Sky News that the mosque’s CCTV system picked up a car stopping outside the centre, before a passenger exited with what appeared to be a bin bag. The same passenger is then seen placing the pig’s head onto a low section of the mosque’s roof, before re-entering the vehicle and driving away.

HMCT has sadly been targeted by a number of other incidents in 2022: one incident involved the theft of a television, while another involved the theft of a donation box. This third incident has shaken the community, which until this year – and in the decade that the mosque has been at the Battersea Road address – had not received any such issues or hate crimes previously.

“We’ve had a peaceful 10 years here. It’s a good community and we’ve had no issues, so we don’t know where this has come from and it’s really painful for us.” [2]

Mohiuddin stated that the clearly deliberate positioning of the pig’s head in a prominent location was proof of the perpetrators’ intent. In explaining that as Muslims, we categorically deem pork to be harām (forbidden) and that pigs are particularly filthy animals, the HMCT trustee added in remarks to the media,

“In our religion, we are not allowed to eat pig’s meat or handle it in any way, we are forbidden to touch it. It was placed on a low-pitched roof of the building which was visible as soon as you enter the road. I think they have picked that point to terrify people.” [2]

We hope that the criminals behind the terror attack are swiftly brought to justice. It is understandably tough for the Heaton Muslim community to rest until those behind this ghastly attack are charged and sentenced accordingly.

Source: Islam21c

Notes

[1] https://news.sky.com/story/pigs-head-left-on-mosque-roof-in-hate-crime-in-stockport-12766813

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63916317