It was stated that the 21-year-old Australian Islamophobic woman, who was detained in the incident where the green-painted pig's head and heart was left at the Gold Coast Mosque in Queensland, Australia on Friday, 28 October, should be charged with a planned hate towards Muslims instead of "deliberate harm".
Gold Coast Mosque President Hussin Goss evaluated the attack on the place of worship, which has a congregation of thousands of people.
Goss stated that the attack on the holy temple of our supreme religion, Islam, was the product of a planned thought, "By making such an attack on our mosque on Friday, our holiest day, the message 'We will do what we want, we will overthrow your religion' is given. The use of a pig's head in the attack, the fact that it was painted green, which is the color of Islam, and that the incident took place on Friday, shows that this is not a crime of harm but a planned hate crime," he said.
Goss underlined the need to strengthen the laws against attacks against Muslims and to approach such acts within the scope of hate crimes.
"The occurrence of such an event in Australia in 2022 shows that the issue should be taken seriously in all its dimensions. If such an outrageous attack had been carried out by a Muslim in a different temple, the whole world would have stood up. The Islamic Ummah makes up about one-third of the world's population. Wherever we are in the world, we need to react together against attacks on mosques," he added.
“ENMITY OF ISLAM SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS HATE CRIME”
Stating that they immediately filed a complaint with the police about the incident, Goss said that the police informed them that a woman was detained in connection with the attack and that the suspect will be brought before the court on the charge of "deliberate harm".
Noting that they want the authorities to punish those who commit hate crimes, Goss said, in order to prevent others from attacking for the same purposes,
"We will follow this case to the end because it is a hate crime. If action is not taken, a fire could start with a spark, and we are very worried that this is happening in Australia. I also shared the footage of the attack on social media. People have called me and sent messages of support over the phone," he stated.
The outrageous incident took place a week after the person who sent a voice threatening message about killing Muslims to Brisbane Kuraby Masjid on 3 October was sentenced.
EVENT PLANNED AND WILLFUL
Explaining that they go to clean the mosque every week in the morning with volunteers to prepare it for Friday prayer, Goss said:
"On the morning of October 28, I saw a wrapped bag at one of the main entrance doors of the mosque. At first, I thought that clothes were brought to be distributed because it was Friday. When I bent over the bag to put it aside, I saw that there was a pig's head and a pig's heart, weighing about 4 kilograms, painted green. They made an effort to do this. I was shocked the first time I saw it and wanted to clear it immediately so that the congregation would not see this scene when they arrived, but I needed proof to give it to the police. That's why I called the volunteers and had the event recorded."
Goss pointed out that the pig has symbolic meanings for Muslims and that choosing the head and heart of this animal for attack is a planned action, and used the following statements:
"For Muslims, the pig is an impure animal and we avoid touching it. Green is a symbolic color strongly associated with the Islamic faith. The sachet containing the animal parts was made on Friday, the holiest day of the week for Muslims, and just one day before the National Mosque Opening Day, which is held annually on October 29. Every year, on October 29, non-Muslims are invited to the mosque to provide information about the religion of Islam and our community."