Daegu, South Korea, 2022.

Neighbors who opposed the construction of a mosque in their community expressed their dissatisfaction with the project. Pig heads—both real and replicas—were placed on chairs, buckets, and even inside a refrigerated display case set up right in the narrow alley leading to the construction site. Public barbecue parties featuring pork and roasted pigs were organized right in front of the place of worship.

Banners were also hung, and flyers with hostile messages were distributed. A banner near the construction site read, in English: “Muslims who brutally kill and behead people, get out of this area right now.” Another read, in Korean: “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.”

Despite pleas from students and human rights organizations, local police and municipal authorities stated that, legally, they could not force residents to remove the pig heads. South Korea lacks a comprehensive anti-discrimination law and laws against hate speech, meaning that authorities had no explicit legal mechanism to classify or punish the display of pig parts as a punishable hate crime.