{"id":890349,"date":"2026-09-13T09:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T09:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890349\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T09:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T09:34:38","slug":"police-investigate-after-pork-products-thrown-at-gippslands-warragul-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/890349\/","title":{"rendered":"Police investigate after pork products thrown at Gippsland’s Warragul Mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Muslim community is saddened after a man was filmed throwing bacon and ham at a mosque in regional Victoria on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Security footage shows a man in a grey tracksuit throwing bacon near the mosque entrance in Warragul.<\/p>\n

The incident, which community leaders have described as hateful, happened days after a social media influencer who advocates for “the defence of Christianity” in Australia posted a video of the mosque, which opened last year.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bacon and ham were strewn around the Warragul Mosque on Wednesday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“The greatest way to defend against any conquest is to make our Christianity strong again,” the social media post from Nick Patterson read.<\/p>\n

“Hyenas will always attack when they sense weakness. We need to become lions again.”<\/p>\n

Pig products are regularly used in Islamophobic attacks because the consumption of pork is forbidden in Islam.<\/p>\n

\"Diced<\/p>\n

Muslim leaders have described the throwing of pork products at Warragul Mosque as hateful. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The Warragul Mosque described the attack as an attempt to “offend, intimidate, and divide”.<\/p>\n

“It will not succeed,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The mosque opened last year after the previous Uniting Church congregation moved to a new, larger location two decades ago.<\/p>\n

It was promoted as an open and inclusive space <\/a>that would also provide a place of prayer and gathering for the region’s growing Muslim community.<\/p>\n

Mansoor Shamsi, vice president of the Warragul Mosque Committee, said the mosque had been targeted with graffiti and vandalism before.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, [I’m] not shocked or surprised,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re caught between not wanting to give oxygen to something, which shouldn’t get any attention because it comes from a place of ignorance, hate, fear.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, we also feel a responsibility to call it out.”<\/p>\n

Victoria Police said it was investigating the incident.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Police are investigating the act at the Warragul Mosque. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Incidents trying to incite reaction: Muslim leader<\/p>\n

The president of the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV), Mohamed Mohideen, said the issue was hurtful to the wider Muslim community and reflected a concern about increasing Islamophobia.<\/p>\n

“We are not here to take over churches,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are not here to take over people’s faith or undermine other people’s faith.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Stickers of a pig were put on a sign for the Muslim section of the Maddingley cemetery in July. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

In July, the ICV filed a report with police after Islamic graves in Maddingley General Cemetery were targeted with stickers featuring pigs.<\/p>\n

Mr Mohideen said such incidents were trying \u2014 and failing \u2014 to incite a reaction from the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Stickers were also put on headstones in the Muslim section of the Maddingley cemetery. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“The community is quite resilient,” he said<\/p>\n

“The Muslim community have got used to attacks of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate.”<\/p>\n

Mansoor Shamsi said the Warragul Mosque had received “overwhelming” support from the broader community.<\/p>\n

“Whenever these things happen, there is an overwhelming amount of support,” he said.<\/p>\n

Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell condemned the incident, calling it a “vile, deliberate act of Islamophobic hate”.<\/p>\n

“Every political leader has the responsibility to do everything in their power to loudly call out the escalation in these vile, racist attacks and do everything in their power to fight back against the far-right extremism that’s fuelling it,” Ms Sandell said.<\/p>\n

“The Greens stand unequivocally with the Warragul Mosque and Muslim communities across Victoria. There can be absolutely no tolerance for Islamophobia, or any kind of racism in Victoria.”<\/p>\n

Social media videos attract calls for mosque vandalism<\/p>\n

Two days before the September 9 incident at the mosque, former mixed martial arts fighter Nick Patterson posted a video of the Warragul Mosque to his Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Over the following days, his post drew hundreds of comments from people outraged that the mosque occupied the former Uniting Church site, even though the church had ceased worshipping there in 2006.<\/p>\n

Some comments suggested the site should be vandalised with pork products.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A man drapes rashers of bacon over the Warragul Mosque’s sign. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Other social media accounts have also shared copies of Mr Patterson’s video on TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

Mr Patterson was approached for comment.<\/p>\n

Victoria Police urged anyone with information about the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Muslim community is saddened after a man was filmed throwing bacon and ham at a mosque in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,12426,75,171726,459945,50903,459946,195566,459947,128,45670],"class_list":["post-890349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bacon","tag-environment","tag-ham","tag-islamic-council-of-victoria","tag-islamophobia","tag-maddingley-general-cemetery","tag-muslim-community","tag-pig-stickers","tag-science","tag-uniting-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}