USF investigating harassment of Muslim students' prayer on Tampa campus

The University of South Florida Police Department is investigating a report of men harassing Muslim students who were praying this week on the roof of a campus parking garage.

At least three men interrupted the Tuesday morning prayer of roughly 10 students on the top floor of the Collins Boulevard parking garage, shouting obscenities and offering the students bacon, according to a statement and video clips posted on Instagram by the USF Muslim Student Association. The students had set up their prayer rugs in a corner of the roof level, the video shows.

“All you Arab Muslims need to take your suicide bombing, terrorist butts and go back to Saudi Arabia,” one of the men told the students, one video clip shows.

“Jesus Christ is coming,” another man said. “Take that towel off your head.”

The men brought a box spray-painted with the words “Kaaba 2.0 Jesus is Lord.” The Kaaba is a stone building at the center of Islam’s most important mosque and holiest site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

One of the men was wearing a head covering and a white robe, known as a thobe in the Islamic faith, with the words “Jesus Is God” written on the front.

“It’s easy to cram your religion down other people’s throats when you remove their heads,” one man said. “But you know, we do care about you, so we brought you some bacon.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2025/11/20/usf-muslim-prayer-parking-garage-harassment-video/