Vandals Slap Bacon on Islamic Center

Police were called to a South Carolina Islamic center after worshipers found the words “PIG CHUMP” spelled out in strips of bacon on a tiled walkway. They believe it was placed there during a prayer meeting between 7am and 2pm on Sunday. For a second, everyone thought it was a joke, one of the men who found it tells WMBF. “Then later on, we thought seriously and we thought, ‘You know, somebody doesn't like us.'”

The Florence Islamic Center has been under renovation for four years, and still isn’t completely finished. “There’s absolutely nothing that identifies it as a mosque,” a Florence police major tells the AP. “It’s an insult, and I’m sure that’s what it was intended for.” One Washington-based Muslim rights group is calling on the FBI to investigate the incident. (More Islamophobia stories.)