Mosque Defaced with Bacon Slices Spelling Out "Pig Chump"

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CBS/AP) A South Carolina Islamic center was defaced Tuesday when someone spelled out "PIG CHUMP" with bacon slices on a tiled walkway at the center.

Florence Police Major Carlos Raines said Tuesday that someone placed the bacon in foot-high letters on the tiled walkway at the Florence Islamic Center between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Islamic dietary restrictions bar Muslims from eating pork.

Mushtaq Hussain is one of the center's founders. He says he's sure whoever brought the bacon to the center was trying to anger those who worship there but that he's not afraid.

"Muslims don't eat the pork, so you just think that somebody did this purposefully to make people feel angry," said Hussain, 50, who also owns a rug business in Florence and moved to the U.S. from Pakistan about 25 years ago. "Definitely they are trying to offend people."

The center has be under renovation for four years, and there is no sign or prayer tower indicating what is operating there, Raines said.
 "There's absolutely nothing that identifies it as a mosque," Raines said. "It's an insult, and I'm sure that's what it was intended for."
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday called on the FBI to investigate. But Hussain says he's confident local police can handle the case.

The bacon has been removed, but Raines said there are still greasy marks on the walkway at the facility in Florence, about 80 miles east of Columbia.