Nadine Osman

Users of an Islamic centre in Greater Manchester have been left “distressed”, say officials after a pig’s head was thrown onto the roof earlier this month. Worshippers at Stockport-based Heatons Muslims Community Trust (HMCT) centre made the grim discovery as they left a night meeting.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police (GMP) told The Muslim News, police have opened an investigation into the incident, “At around 9:15 pm on Friday 9 December 2022, GMP received a report of a hate crime outside a place of worship on Battersea Road, Stockport.”

One of the HMCT’s trustees says the incident has caused a great amount of fear and distress, including among children and the elderly who use the centre.

Muhammad Tayyab Mohiuddin said, “In the evening we have a bit of a gathering at the community centre and some people came out and someone said, ‘There’s a pig’s head on the roof.’

“It’s a short roof so it was easy to see. I think they have picked that point to terrify people. Everyone knows someone has placed it there and what their intentions were.

“In our religion, we are not allowed to eat pig’s meat or handle it in any way, so someone has done it specifically for that reason. 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 or take a wrong step.”

Mohiuddin said the centre, which has been serving Heatons’ Muslim residents for over a decade, has never had any issues other than two burglaries in the past year where a TV and donation box were stolen.

He said CCTV footage showed a car pulling up and two people, getting out one of whom was carrying what appeared to be a bin bag. He said the car’s registration plate was captured on the dash cam in one user’s car meaning they were hopeful police would be able to quickly trace the culprits.HMCT said they ‘had a pig’s head placed on the roof, in what looks like a hate crime.’

“Unfortunately, this behaviour is not a one-off occurrence,” they said. “In survey data released earlier this year, by Muslim Census and MEND , it was reported that almost half of mosques or Islamic institutions surveyed have experienced religiously motivated attacks in the last three years.

“Seventeen per cent of mosques from the 42% reported having faced physical abuse directed at staff or worshippers.
“The HMCT asks local residents and worshippers to remain vigilant and report any hate to the police.”