2 arrested for pig's head incident

[Scurrilous]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3133530,00.html

<snip>

"The Shin Bet intelligence agency and a special police team of investigators have arrested a Tel Aviv couple on suspicion they threw a pigs head into the Hassan Bek mosque in Jaffa last week.

34-year-old Shimon Ben-Chaim, and his 31-year-old wife Victoria Shteinman were arrested Friday and charged with desecrating a holy site, incitement, mutiny, insulting religious feelings, planning to commit a crime and illegal assembly.

Under investigation, the pair said they'd hoped to instigate Jaffa Muslims to riot in order to derail the Gaza disengagement plan.

Police found a second pig's head in the couple's refrigerator. The couple said they had planned to repeat the attack."

<snip>

"Muslim worshippers at the mosque found the pig's head, wrapped in a traditional Muslim headdress (keffiyeh) last Friday, with a note reading, "The Prophet Mohammed" attached.

Members of the Islamic Movement in Jaffa, to which the mosque belongs, said the incident was "serious" and represented a "serious blow" to Muslim sensibilities."

[Violet_Crumble]

1. It wasn't hard to guess extremists would be behind that...

I remember seeing a thread last week where there was attempts to say that it *might* be Arabs responsible for this, but it always seemed to be pretty obvious to me that it was yet another attempt to derail the disengagement...

Violet...

[Tinoire]

2. And not the first time either

Pathetic knee-jerk finger-pointing for each and whatever incident only prove what a hard battle the peace process faces.

[Scurrilous]

3. Court releases suspect in throwing pig's head at mosque

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/625420.html

<snip>

"The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Thursday rejected a request to extend the remand of a man suspected of throwing a pig's head into the yard of the Hassan Bek mosque in Jaffa last month.

Judge Yael Henig said that there was no risk that Shimon Ben Haim would repeat the act after having expressed regret.

The prosecution claimed that Ben Haim could constitute a threat to public security since a repeat of the act would lead to a violent outbreak. It presented the opinion of a member of the Shin Bet security services which showed that a repeat of Ben Haim's action could widen the extent of protest in the Arab sector and encourage violence.

But the judge upheld the defense's argument and stated in her ruling that Ben Haim is among the poor living on the fringes of society and does not belong to any ideological movement. She also stated that Ben Haim cooperated with his investigators and expressed remorse for his acts and apologized before the Arab sector."