Shortly after November's horrific terrorist attacks in Paris, a mosque in Philadelphia received a phone message stating, "I hope you people are happy about what you did in Paris. I'd like to state for the record that Allah is a piece of pork shit." Then, in the early morning hours of December 7, five days after the San Bernardino massacre by two self-radicalized supporters of ISIS, the mosque manager arrived to unlock the front doors for early morning prayer. As he was about to enter, he noticed the severed head of a pig lying on the sidewalk. Pork, as you probably know, is forbidden in Islam and this is rightly understood as an act of desecration. Philadelphia police are investigating both incidents.

 

How ironic that these events took place in Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Love, which was founded by William Penn. As a Quaker who experienced imprisonment and persecution in Anglican England, Penn established his colony as haven for religious freedom. His ideas gave rise to the values ensconced in the U.S. Constitution which guarantee legal protections for the free exercise of religion.