Religious prejudice will not be tolerated, says PM

Georgia’s Prime Minister is calling on law enforcement agencies to immediately look into a case of religious intolerance, where a slaughtered pig’s head was nailed to the door of a Muslim boarding school.

The confrontation took place in Kobuleti, in Georgia’s Adjara region yesterday.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili issued a statement today announcing instances of religious prejudice were unacceptable and the Government would not tolerate such instances of intolerance.

On Wednesday a group of Kobuleti locals, who opposed the opening of a Muslim boarding school in their neighbourhood, slaughtered a pig at the entrance of intended school building and nailed the pig’s head to its door.

"Insulting faith and trampling on religious feelings is absolutely unacceptable behaviour and such incidents must not take place in this country, which has always been distinguished with its religious tolerance and where representatives of all religions have always been respected and treated as it is due,” said the PM in a statement.

He assured Georgia’s Muslim community the state would "do its best to defend their interests” and hold all offenders responsible.

Georgia’s Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani also condemned the incident. She said disrespect towards any other confession was not part of the Christian Culture. 

"It’s important for each religious organisation to understand that the Government will never let any religious confrontation take place in the country,” she said.

Mufti of the Georgian Muslims' Directorate Jemal Paksadze said the Muslim community were "deeply offended” by the incident.

"This is a very bad incident. This is a huge insult for Muslims,” he said. 

The three-storey building intended for the school in Kobuleti, owned by a Turkish citizen, was being operated by an organisation known as the Georgian Muslims Relation. Its representative Shamil Kakaladze said prior to this incident, a group of local Orthodox Christians had made a number of threats against the proposed school. The Orthodox Christians allegedly said they would not allow the school to be opened.

Kakaladze said about two weeks ago, the activists erected a cross in front of the Muslim boarding school. This fact was ignored by the school administration.

As well as the pig incident, yesterday a group of a few dozen locals briefly blocked the main road that led through Kobuleti. This same group of people also held numerous protests during July after learning the building was owned by a Turkish citizen. The protesters said they did not want a Turkish-funded Muslim school in their neighbourhood.

"We don’t want any religious confrontation, we respect other religions but this is a completely Christian place, there is not a single Muslim in this [neighbourhood],” one of the protesters said.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, 10 civil society organisations condemned the incident in Kobuleti and said increased number of cases of intolerance against Muslim communities was a result of the authorities’ "inefficient and inadequate” reaction to such cases.