The construction of a model mosque atop a Protestant loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland has drawn strong political criticism and resulted in the arrest of a 56-year-old man, according to reports.
The exhibit in Moygashel, Tyrone, was put up in July in advance of the customary "Eleventh Night" bonfires, and the Orange Order parades on July 12. It included anti-immigrant signs that said, "secure our borders" and "end the threat of radical Islam," as well as an effigy in one of the imitation windows with a knife, Reuters reproted.
Bonfires are lit across the 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 incident comes s month after anti-immigrant rioting erupted in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
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"This has nothing to do with tradition and does not accurately reflect the vast majority of Northern Ireland's population," Hilary Benn, the British minister for Northern Ireland, said on X.
The placement of a replica mosque on the Moygashel bonfire is a sickening and cowardly act of intimidation.
— Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) July 9, 2026
This is not about tradition, and in no way does it represent the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland.
We must stand united and completely reject such hatred.
The Irish nationalist Sinn Féin party's Colm Gildernew demanded that authorities put an end to what he called a blatant hate crime. The action was likewise denounced by the major pro-British parties.
According to police, a 56-year-old male was detained on suspicion of publishing offensive, abusive, or threatening content meant to incite hatred.
On some of the bonfires, anti-Catholic chants and images of Catholic Irish figures have been substituted by anti-immigrant imagery. At the same spot in Moygashel, a model of migrants on a boat was set on fire last year.
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