Swine-Eating Swede Tried for Racism After Shaking His Bacon at Mortified Muslims

According to the indictment, the man indulged in ‘instigating hate' by consuming bacon in dangerous proximity to a group of women with veiled faces, which apparently were Muslims. In addition to dangling the bacon in the face of the women in an offensive way, he is said to have uttered racist comments, local news portal Mitt i reported. When the women changed seats to avoid the "bacon torture," the foul-mouthed pork-eater followed them, shouting racial slurs.

According to report, the man was also said to have directed discriminatory slurs at another woman in the train station after getting off the train and is now facing charges of incitement to racial hatred, although it was not specified what exactly was said during the incident. Islam specifically prohibits the consumption of pork and pig derivatives.

On social media, the incident was met with a mixed bag of irony and incredulity. Twitter user PeterSweden expressed sarcasm by venturing that the next step will be to accuse people of racism for walking their dogs (as dogs are likewise considered impure in Islam).

​Meanwhile, this is not the first instance of so called bacon abuse. Earlier this year, a British man was charged with racism and put on trial for telling Muslims to "go eat bacon." In 2016, the Lebanese Muslim Association based in Sydney, Australia, reportedly received Christmas cards either containing pieces of bacon or said to be rubbed with greasy bacon fingers.

In early 2016, the Danish town of Randers made history by making it compulsory for public institutions to serve pork products in the aftermath of the so-called "meatball war," in which the opponents argued that pork products should not be served out of respect for certain religions, such as Islam. Randers City Council, however, ruled pork as a foundation of the Danish food culture. There are around 13 million pigs in Denmark, and sales of pork products and live pigs account for no less than 5 percent of the country's exports.

In 2016, Conservative Swedish MP Hanif Bali suggested utilizing Muslims' aversion for pork as a litmus test to sift out the most hardcore jihadists returning to Sweden. According to a notorious tweet by Bali, jihadi returnees should be sent to pork farms for internships before being re-introduced into Sweden's welfare system.

​In 2015, anti-immigration campaigners in the town of Gullberg in southern Sweden advocated building a pig farm next to an asylum center to deter the influx of Muslim immigrants, who might find this neighborhood offensive.

 

Never miss a story again — sign up to our Telegram channel and we'll keep you up to speed!