Police in Northern Ireland say a bonfire with anti-Islam material was deliberately set alight ahead of a planned operation to dismantle it.
MOYGASHEL (United Kingdom): Northern Irish police said Friday that an anti-Islam bonfire with a replica mosque on top was deliberately torched before a police operation to remove it.
A “complex policing operation” to remove the “hate display” in the village of Moygashel in the UK province was at “an advanced stage” when the fire was lit, said a police statement.
“Had the bonfire not been lit police would have secured the site and removed the offending material and seized it as evidence.”
On Thursday, police arrested a 56-year-old man and called the stunt a “hate-motivated criminal offence”.
Bonfires made of wooden pallets are lit across Northern Ireland every year in the run-up to Orange Order traditional parades on July 12 that mark a Protestant victory over Catholics in 1690.
Some of the pyres spark controversy as Irish flags, effigies, anti-Catholic and anti-immigration signs are often placed on the bonfires.
Signs saying “Secure our borders” and “End the threat of radical Islam” were placed on the fire in Moygashel, some 40 miles (65 kilometres) west of Belfast.
The lettering “Islamic fascism” also appeared on the model of the mosque, as well as a mannequin dressed as a terrorist.
In a social media post, the bonfire organisers said “due to confirmation of contractors moving in and removing the bonfire, the decision (was) made to light it asap”. Images on social media showed the pyre ablaze.
Organisers said Thursday the stunt was an “act of protest” against “mass illegal immigration and a failure to deport foreign criminals who have come here unlawfully”.
The British government’s Northern Ireland minister ince Hilary Benn called the bonfire “a sickening and cowardly act of intimidation”.
“We must stand united and completely reject such hatred,” Benn said in a social media post.
Rights group Amnesty International called the stunt “vile” and a “blatant attempt to stir up anti-Muslim hatred and intimidate local families”.
Last year, politicians condemned the same bonfire site after an effigy of migrants in a boat along with a “Stop the Boats” banner was placed on it.
Northern Ireland has been rocked in recent weeks by anti-immigration violence following a knife attack by a Sudanese asylum seeker.
