Race hate thugs are behind a series of inflammatory attacks with pork on a Mosque and Muslim homes. The thugs have been throwing bacon and pork at several houses in South Shields town centre since the turn of the year. Community leaders today told how they fear the attacks are an attempt to intimidate the town’s Muslim community.
In one attack, a slab of bacon was left outside one of the community’s most popular mosques – the South Tyneside Jam-E-Masjid Bangladeshi Muslim Culture and Welfare Association in Baring Street. Police, who have stepped up patrols in the area and confirmed they have received five reports of pork products being thrown or left outside of properties in the town centre. But today a town centre politician said he believes it could be more widespread as many of the community may feel too scared to report the crimes.
Chief Supt Ian Dawes said officers from South Tyneside Area Command are working closely with the town’s Muslim community in an attempt to trace the racist gang. “We urge anyone who suffers harassment, intimidation or any other racist crime to report it to police as soon as possible so that it can be thoroughly investigated. We take any allegations of racist crimes very seriously.”