Australia: Pig heads stuck on spikes outside Islamic school site

Two pig heads were stuck on metal stakes outside the site of a planned Islamic school in Australia’s largest city today.

A passer-by reported that the heads had been placed near an Australian flag at an empty site in Camden, a suburb of Sydney.

Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and the act was described as a “display of hatred”.

Detective Inspector Paul Albury said police were seeking information about a person who used a citizen’s band radio to claim responsibility for the pig heads.

Stepan Kerkyasharian, chairman of the New South Wales Community Relations Commission, a state government body that promotes cultural diversity and community harmony, said the incident followed a local debate that included opposition to a plan to build a school for 1,200 Muslim students on the site.

He said: “This insult and display of hatred is not something any fair-minded Australian would approve of.”

Islam is a fast-growing religion in secular Australia and has about 400,000 followers out of a population of roughly 21 million people.

Tensions have occasionally risen in recent years, most notably days of rioting between Caucasian and Middle Eastern youths at Sydney’s Cronulla beach in late 2005.

Jeremy Bingham, a spokesman for the Quranic Society that is planning to build the school, said the incident was “a bit sad, frankly”.

He said he did not think it was representative of the feelings of most people in Camden.