Unknown vandals desecrate mosque in Austria
GENEVA (AA) – Unknown Islamophobic extremists left a severed pig’s head at the entrance of a mosque in the Austrian city of Graz on Sunday.
According to a media report, a local resident notified police at around 9:40 p.m. Sunday evening, stating that the entrance area of the mosque had been damaged.
Police found the severed pig’s head at the entrance when they reached the site.
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution started an investigation.
Graz has witnessed similar incidents in the past. On the night of May 6, 2016, a man, arrested a short time later, attached pig head halves to the exterior of a mosque and spilled pig blood.
The man and two accomplices had been convicted in 2020.
In 2021, two members of the Austrian Army Counterintelligence Office were also charged in connection with the 2016 incident. They were accused of knowing about the attack in 2016 but protecting their informants and not passing on the information to the police.
The two individuals were sentenced to fines in January 2021, but had appealed the verdict. These proceedings are still ongoing.
Emboldened offensive acts of Islamophobia are on the increase in Europe in the face of the failure of security agencies to act effectively to prevent them, leaving the Muslim community vulnerable and insecure.
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