Three men were charged after they harassed Muslim students with slurs and bacon while they were performing their dawn prayer at a parking garage in the University of South Florida .Police identified the trio: 1) Christopher Svochak of Waco in Texas, 2) Richard Penskoski of Canyon in Oklahoma and 3) Ricardo Yepez of Tampa. None of them are part of the university. The men are accused of storming the Collins Boulevard Parking Garage last week and disrupting a gathering hosted by the Muslim Students Association, according to the Tampa Bay Times.All three face a felony count of disturbing schools and religious assemblies under Florida’s hate crime enhancement statute, as well as misdemeanour charges of disorderly conduct and disrupting a school or lawful assembly. Investigators said the charges followed several days of reviewing video footage that captured the incident.According to students, the group appeared during prayer on the top level of the garage, arriving with props they had prepared ahead of time. One man carried a cardboard box painted black with the words “Kaaba 2.0 Jesus is Lord.” Another wore a white thobe with Jesus is God printed across it. Students said the men moved extremely close to them while they were bowing. Abu Tahir, who was present, said the group stood so near that they feared being kicked or stepped on. He said they hesitated about whether to interrupt their prayer. “We had a thought in our head, do we break the prayer? Do we end the prayer to address whatever is going on?” he said.Others described insults being shouted only inches from their faces. The men yelled “Bow down to lord Jesus Christ” and “Your prophet married a 6 year old,” according to a Reddit post shared by members of the Muslim Students Association. The post also said the men taunted worshippers with bacon once the prayer ended. Islam prohibits consumption of pork and pork products.One student said a man asked “You don’t have a bomb on you do you?” Another comment students recalled was “go back to where you came from”. The Reddit post said one of the men spoke the prophet’s name and then spat on the ground.After the prayer ended the students said the men pointed cameras at them and zoomed in and continued to comment. “We had no idea whether we were going to leave there safely,” Tahir said.Sajid Kahn, another student at the scene, said the group’s behaviour felt deliberately planned and intended to mock their culture and worship. Police said the investigation remains ongoing but there is no bigger threat to the campus, reports the New York Post.
