Years after the opening of Park 51, a group of ammunition manufacturers is still upset over the construction of the $100 million mosque and interfaith community center located two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City. Idaho-based South Fork Industries is now marketing a product as a means to prevent future terrorist attacks — a line of bullets called Jihawg Ammo, a “defensive deterrent to those who violently act in the name of Islam.”
Their product is beginning to gain wider market appeal among gun owners, as the company now boasts more than 5,700 likes on its Facebook page.
South Fork’s website claims the bullets are produced using pork products, or a “Porcine Coating (Pattern Pending)… infused with the highest quality pork product made right here in America.” The company claims that it is “the only ammunition in the world that provides a peaceful and natural deterrent to radical Islam.”
Pork products are considered “harram,” or unclean, and Muslims are forbidden from consuming them in the same way that observant Jews avoid pork due to religious dietary restrictions. South Fork Industries promotes their product as a way to prevent terrorists from carrying out attacks, believing that killing a Muslim terrorist with a bullet coated in pork will render him unfit to enter heaven.
“With Jihawg Ammo, you don’t just kill an Islamist terrorist, you also send him to hell. That should give would-be martyrs something to think about before they launch an attack. If it ever becomes necessary to defend yourself and those around you our ammo works on two levels,” the website claims.
No attacks using the pork-laced bullets have been reported and the company insists that the bullets should be used for “defensive purposes” or as a “deterrent” to prevent would-be terrorists from carrying out attacks.
Terrorist attacks remain a threat to U.S. security, but are a rarity since Sept. 11, 2001. According to The Ohio State University, there have been roughly 50 attempted terrorist attacks in the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks, most plotted by extremists from outside the U.S. or individuals with histories of mental illness. All but the Boston bombings earlier this year were thwarted by the work of the FBI and other intelligence agencies.
Using information from South Fork Industries’ website, Boise Weekly reports that the idea dates back to 2010, when some Idaho County residents were upset over plans to build a mosque and interfaith community center two blocks away from New York City’s Ground Zero, the site of one of the 9/11 attacks.
According to the South Fork Industries website,
“In the fall of 2010, patriots from Idaho County, Idaho sat around a campfire enjoying an adult beverage. The discussion turned to concern and disgust that a mosque was being built at ground zero. Everyone in attendance agreed that freedom of religion is paramount for all peoples of Earth but this showed poor taste and had a sense of ‘rubbing our noses’ into 9/11 tragedy. The discussion turned toward possible solutions to stop such a great insult.”
The year 2010 was marked by a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes across the U.S. According to the FBI, attacks against Muslim communities rose 50 percent to 160 reported crimes in 2010.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder of the Park 51 community center, has a history of condemning terrorism and the actions of radical groups like al-Qaida. The Kuwaiti-American is an interfaith peacebuilder, creating the center as a means to bridge divides among different religious communities.
Many New Yorkers still object to the project, which opened in 2011. Rauf and supporters have repeatedly condemned the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Islamic extremism for the majority of Muslims is an oxymoron,” said Rauf. “It is a fundamental contradiction in terms.”