Finsbury Park Mosque chairman: ‘Pork attack is so offensive’
Finsbury Park Mosque chairman Mohammed Kozbar. Picture: Ken Mears - Credit: Archant
The chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque is “very upset” after a bag of pork sausages was thrown into the compound – the second hate attack in six months.
Police want to speak to this man about the meat throwing incident at Finsbury Park Mosque on Thursday. Picture: Met Police - Credit: Archant
At about 2am on Thursday, a man hurled the “smelly” bag of meat remains over a fence.
In November, a would-be arsonist threw a jerrycan of petrol into its grounds, trying and failing to set it alight. Chairman Mohammed Kozbar later branded this a “terrorist” attack. The perpetrator is still at large.
Officers are still trying to identify a man captured on CCTV at the time of Thursday’s incident.
Mr Kozbar, widely credited with stamping out the mosque’s extremist links since he was appointed chairman in 2005, said this evening: “This latest incident is very upsetting and frustrating. The whole community is frustrated.
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“We haven’t got a result on what happened in November. Whoever did that is still at large. Now we have this incident, which is offensive and has upset everyone in our community.”
Finsbury Park Mosque in St Thomas's Road. Picture: Ken Mears - Credit: Archant
The meat was found when the mosque opened later on Thursday. “We contacted the police straight away,” Mr Kozbar said. “Hopefully they can soon identify whoever did it.
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“It was a big bag of pork remains including sausages. It smelt very bad and whoever did it had clearly gone to a lot of effort.”
Det Insp Ralph Coates, of Islington community safety unit, said: “We take hate crime extremely seriously as we know how destructive these offences can be, both to individuals and to communities.
“I would urge anyone who recognises this man or has any information that will help the investigation to contact police.”
Anyone with information about the incident, or who can identify the man, is asked to contact the unit on 020 7421 0281 or 101.
Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. The reference number is 2712630/16.
