Machete-Wielding Vandal Wrecks Mosque, Leaves Behind Bacon

Police in central Florida are on the hunt for a man who they say vandalized a mosque with a machete and left bacon at its front door.

The unidentified suspect was caught on surveillance footage breaking into the Islamic Society of Central Florida Al-Mumin Mosque late Friday, the Titusville Police Department said. The man whipped out a machete from a bag and used it to shatter several windows, lights and cameras, authorities said.

He also left 3 pounds of bacon at the door, Fox 25 WFXT reports. Muslims are prohibited from consuming pork products, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which called for authorities to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

“The use of pork in an incident of this type is one clear indicator of a possible bias motive for the vandalism,” CAIR Florida Regional Operations Director Nezar Hamze said in a statement.

The incident is the latest in a string of attacks on mosques nationwide. A severed pig’s head was found outside a Philadelphia mosque in December. CAIR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., had to be evacuated a few days later after a foreign substance was received in the mail.

CAIR said it tallied more than 70 incidents targeting American mosques and religious institutions in 2015.