To your averagely profane, carnivorous unbeliever, it is a thing of beauty. An object of unvarnished pleasure. A pretext, even, for a national day of celebration. Whereas to your averagely devout Muslim, carnivorous or otherwise, it is an abomination. A vomit-inducing object of disgust. Pig meat, in all its wonderful variations—pancetta, lardo, speck, coppa, and prosciutto to name just a few—is haram forbidden in Islam.

O ver the years, I have witnessed my faith dwindle and unravel. But long after my spirited embrace of alcohol, my "sinful" attitude to sex, my loss of faith in the temple of organised religion and my agnosticism and indifference towards the supreme being, one bizarre artefact of faith — a sacred cow that refused to be slaughtered — clung on with obstinate pig-headedness: a distaste for pork. For years, this irrational aversion intrigued and amused my wife. Katleen would wonder why it was that many secular Muslims would drink alcohol and commit other non-orthodox acts, but never touch pork. And I would watch her with awe-struck fascination as she tucked into a spaghetti carbonara, with apparent enjoyment. My theory was that, for believing but non-practising Muslims, there is nothing that can really take the place of alcohol — even hashish or marijuana, which is consumed by many Muslims as an alternative because it is not explicitly prohibited, is not the same as a glass of wine or beer. My friends tend to agree with this analysis.

Jump to navigation Skip navigation. Although these sentiments manifest themselves in many ways, attacks on mosques directly take aim at religious freedom. Existing and proposed mosque sites across the country have been targeted for vandalism and other criminal acts, and there have been efforts to block or deny necessary zoning permits for the construction and expansion of other facilities. Below is a map highlighting anti-mosque incidents across the country since Multiple locations, March Authorities investigated a series of break-ins in Alabama mosques and a potential link to a burglary in Virginia.

People living in the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture were invited to events marking the celebration and told they could be taken to re-education camps if they did not take part, according to Radio Free Asia RFA. A previous report published by a Christian NGO, ChinaAid, claimed in February that Muslims in Xinjiang had been forced to take part in new year celebrations, which included eating food they had not prepared themselves and the contents of which they could not ascertain. It was also reported last October that officials in the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi, had launched a campaign against halal products. China is engaged in what it has called an anti-extremism and anti-separatism drive in heavily-Muslim Xinjiang, an autonomous region home to large populations of ethnic Uighur and Kazakh peoples.