Community offers support for mosque’s worshippers

LEWISTON – Community leaders shaken by an incident in which a man tossed a pig’s head into a mosque rallied Wednesday around the Somali worshippers, saying they won’t tolerate religious hatred or discrimination.

Gathering in a park where John F. Kennedy once spoke, the leader of the mosque was joined by a rabbi and Christian ministers, along with the mayor, the governor, students and community activists in a show of solidarity.

“Our message is simple: An attack on any house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship,” Rabbi Hillel Katzir said.

Brent Matthews, 33, of Lewiston was charged with desecration of a place of worship, a misdemeanor, after the incident, which occurred about 10 p.m. July 3. Matthews, who remains free on bail, told police he intended it as a joke.

Muslims are prohibited from eating pork, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations contends the act was an insult upon Islam.

The Rev. Jodi Hayashida from First Universalist Church in Auburn said the incident was no harmless prank. Instead, she said it represented a type of “casual hatred” that demanded a response from the Lewiston-Auburn community.

“A line has been crossed, a line that is very dangerous and a line that this community cannot afford to cross,” she said.

About 150 people rallied in Kennedy Park to show support for the mosque and the Somali immigrants who worship there.

Lewiston is home to more than 2,000 Somali refugees, who began moving there in 2001 for affordable housing. Their move to the former mill town of about 35,000 along the Androscoggin River has not been without a few bumps along the way.

In 2002, then-Mayor Larry Raymond created a furor by asking Somali community leaders to stop the influx. White supremacists tried to stir things up with a rally, but they were shouted down and local residents rallied in support of the Somalis.

Four years later, though, it’s evident that tensions remain.

This week, the state attorney general filed a civil complaint against a white woman from Greene who is accused of spitting on a Somali man and using racial slurs in a traffic confrontation last November in Lewiston.

Likewise, the attorney general will review the pig’s head incident to determine whether to prosecute under Maine’s civil rights statute. Also, the FBI has been conferring with local police to determine if federal hate crimes laws were violated.

Defense lawyer James Howaniec, who asked a judge for a gag order to prevent officials from further discussing the incident in the media, declined comment Wednesday.

“We feel that too much has been said about this case already. It’s our intention to let this case be resolved in the court system where it belongs,” Howaniec said.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the pig’s head incident fits with what he sees as a pattern of vandalism against mosques, with recent incidents in Indiana, Arizona and Maryland.

Also, the FBI is investigating the online posting of a video in which someone fired a military-style rifle at the Quran, the Muslim holy book. The bullet-riddled copy of the Quran was left outside a mosque in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Overall, though, FBI statistics show that hate crimes against individual Muslims have declined since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2001, there was a high of 366 cases, and the figure has steadily declined to 32 in 2005, said FBI spokesman Bill Carter.

Abdi Sheikh, the leader of the Lewiston-Auburn Islamic Center, said after the rally that he was gratified by the community’s response and support. “This is showing us the love and support we have from the Maine people,” Sheikh said.

Hussein Ahmed, who was in the mosque when the pig’s head was thrown in, said the incident backfired on the suspect.

Instead of dividing the mosque and the Lewiston-Auburn community, “he brought us closer together,” Ahmed said.