Two men arrested over pig’s head incident at Islamic school in Portsmouth

The Mirror and Portsmouth News report on the arrest of two men in connection with a suspected hate crime at the Madani Academy Islamic School in Portsmouth in January.

Staff at the school arrived on the morning of Thursday 21 January to find a pig’s head tied to the gate. The head had a swastika drawn on it and “an offensive message about Allah” written on it in black marker.

The papers report that two men, aged 24 and 27, have been arrested “on suspicion of racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment or distress by words or writing”.

The two men have been bailed to return to court on 29 April.

The incident attracted an outpouring of supportive messages with locals leaving cards at the school gates. One message read “Dear Madani school, we love you!”.

Another message, rejecting the bigotry of the few, read: “This is in response to the ugly incident of a severed pig’s head left outside this school, an attempt to intimidate staff and frighten children.

“It was carried out last week – under cover of darkness by racist cowards who represent a tiny minority of the overwhelming majority of decent, law abiding citizens of Portsmouth.

“Where cowards leave messages of hate and fear – we will fight it with flowers, symbols of peace and boxes of chocolates.

“And we will win because there are many, many more of us ordinary fair-minded people in every town and city than there are bigots.”