Plant a Pig to Stop Mosque Construction-Truth! & Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:

The Truth:

Opponents of mosques around the world have used what’s referred to as the “plant a pig movement” in an attempt to bring construction to a halt, but the so-called “Muslim Kryptonite” hasn’t prevented the construction of any mosques.

The proposed construction of a mosque in Seville, Spain, in 2008 carried a great deal of cultural significance. It had been 750 years since the city’s last mosque had been converted into a Christian church in 1248. Seville residents pushed back on the mosque’s proposed construction, and the plant a pig movement was born. 

By November 2010, construction of the mosque still wasn’t underway when citizens launched “Operation Gorrino,” as it was dubbed, and staged a funeral before burying a pig on land the city had committed to the mosque, MinutoDigital reports. A video of the protest showed about “15 people young people” burying a pig on the site. In the end, the mosque was never constructed there, according to IslamicFinder.com. However, reports indicate that the project was doomed by lack of funding rather than the so-called Muslim Kryptonite.

Another high-profile instance of the plant a pig movement cropped up in Switzerland in 2011. Police in Solothum Canton found pig body parts and pig blood buried on the site of a mosque after an anonymous tip, CNN reports. A Central Islamic Council spokesperson said the stunt had “crossed the line” and mirrored recent “Islamophobia” in the region. But the plant a pig movement didn’t prompt the partitioners to stop using the mosque.

“We can just wait for the next rain or snowfall to cleanse the ground, so we do not fear from this side anything,” the Central Islamic spokesperson said.