Residents of Daegu protest mosque construction with pork barbecue

Residents of Daehyeon-dong in Daegu in opposition to the construction of a mosque in the neighborhood on Thursday cooked a whole pig near the construction site, stepping up the ongoing clash with Muslim residents of the city.

On the same day, the Daegu anti-mosque committee, which was formed to stop the construction, held a press conference at the west gate of Kyungpook National University, announcing the assault by a Pakistani international student.

“The Pakistani student was charged with a summary offense for shoving the arm of a resident of Daehyeon-dong who tried to remove the construction owner’s tent,” the committee announced. A summary offense occurs when a case is deemed light in nature and a judge assigns a fine in writing, without a formal trial.

“Despite the assault of our resident, the Muslim community is claiming that we are hampering the construction just because we placed the head of dead pig near the construction site,” the committee said, forewarning that they would take “firm responses to the assault by the Muslim student.”

Earlier in October, residents of Daehyeon-dong had placed a pig's head near the construction site in protest of the mosque construction. Pork is a forbidden food in Islam in accordance with the Quran.

Following the press conference, members of the emergency committee immediately moved to the mosque construction site and held what they called a “Daehyeon-dong year-end party.”

To prevent physical conflict, the Daegu Northern District Police Station has deployed personnel from an emergency team on standby near the construction site.