AUBURN, Maine (AP) – A Lewiston man accused of rolling a pig’s head into a mosque during evening prayers told a judge he feels bad about the incident. But he continued to insist that the stunt was intended only as a joke.
Brent Matthews, 33, made his first public comments on the witness stand Thursday in Androscoggin County Superior Court.
“I feel bad,” he said. “I wish I could turn back time.”
He told the judge he planned to put the pig’s head in front of a place where “dark people” congregated. He said he didn’t know it was a mosque.
Matthews said repeatedly that it was “just a joke,” but Justice Ellen Gorman was unmoved. She compared Matthews’ explanation to those who paint swastikas on synagogues or Ku Klux Klansmen who try to intimidate black Americans.
Gorman granted the state’s request for a preliminary injunction in its civil lawsuit against Matthews, who’s accused of violating the Maine Civil Rights Act.
The injunction orders Matthews to stay at least 150 feet away from the Lewiston-Auburn Islamic Center and its members. He was also ordered not to have communication with members of the mosque except for purposes of his defense and only through his attorney.
Gorman’s order is a preliminary injunction, but the state will not seek to have a permanent injunction issued until the criminal charge against Matthews is resolved, said Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin.
If Matthews violates conditions of the injunction, he could face jail time and fines.
Matthews’ attorney, James Howaniec, said his client never intended to create an uproar with his actions. He called it a “stupid act.”
In court, Matthews said he obtained the head at a pig roast a few weeks before the July 3 mosque incident. He intended to use it for target practice, he said.
Instead, he came up with the idea of putting it outside the mosque as a gag. “I was always a practical joker in high school,” he said.
He said he intended to put the pig’s head in front of the building, but he said the thawing head slipped from his hands and rolled through the open front door.
Robbin said it “physically impossible” to roll a pig’s head into the prayer area without setting foot in the mosque. And she noted he didn’t use a cow’s head or a duck’s head, she said. Instead, it was a pig’s head, something considered impure by Islamic culture.
“If that isn’t racial bias, I don’t know what is,” she said.
Matthews was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of desecrating a house of worship after he allegedly rolled the pig’s head into the mosque as a group of about 40 Somali immigrants were bowed in evening prayer.
Nuh Iman, the imam from the mosque, said the judge made the right decision. But he stressed that the people at the mosque forgive Matthews.
Source: AP, Sept 1, 2006
