Replica of mosque set alight on bonfire condemned in Northern Ireland

A replica mosque was set alight in a pro-British town near Belfast, a day before it was scheduled to be removed by police as part of a bonfire display.

A replica of a mosque, placed on ​a bonfire in a pro-British town ‌near Belfast, was ​set alight on Thursday night before police had a chance to remove what they described as a "hate display" that was condemned by politicians across the region.

Bonfires ‌are lit across the British region in mainly Protestant "loyalist" neighbourhoods on the eve of July 12 commemorations of William of Orange's victory over the Roman Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The replica mosque on a ‌tall structure of wooden pallets, erected a month after anti-migrant violence swept Belfast, was due to be set ‌alight in front of large crowds on Friday but was lit a day early as police were preparing to remove it, organisers said on Facebook.

"Had the bonfire not been lit, police would have secured the site and removed the offending material and seized it as evidence. Hate ⁠crime ​has no place in our ⁠society and will not be tolerated," Police Chief Superintendent Norman Haslett said in a statement. A 56-year-old man charged with incitement to hatred is ⁠due to appear in court on Friday.

Britain's minister for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, described the display on Thursday as a "sickening and cowardly act ​of intimidation". Anti-migrant imagery has in some instances replaced pictures and effigies of Catholic Irish politicians and anti-Catholic slogans ⁠commonly placed on some of the bonfires.

A model of refugees in a boat was set alight last year at the same location in ⁠Moygashel, ​65 km (40 miles) west of Belfast. That also followed a period of violence in which migrants' homes were attacked. Rioters attacked homes and businesses of ethnic minorities in riots last month after a viral video showed a ⁠stabbing in which a man lost an eye. A man police say is from Sudan or Chad has been charged ⁠with attempted murder.

The replica ⁠of the mosque had an effigy of a person in one window holding an item that looked like a knife. Banners below it read "secure our borders" and "end the threat ‌of radical Islam".