Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

FBI smashes alleged radical-right terror plot in Texas – US media show little interest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

American Insurgent MovementFBI agents in Texas have arrested a man who allegedly was plotting to use C-4 explosives and weapons to kill police officers, rob banks and armored cars, and blow up government buildings and mosques, authorities announced today.

Robert James Talbot Jr., 38, of Katy, Texas, was arrested Thursday on federal charges of attempted interference with commerce by robbery, solicitation to commit a crime of violence and possession of an explosive material, the FBI said.

After setting up a Facebook page called American Insurgent Movement (AIM), Talbot allegedly sought to recruit five or six like-minded people who wanted “to restore America Pre-Constitutionally and look forward to stopping the Regime with action by bloodshed.” He wrote this year on the AIM page that he was seeking people interested in “walking away from your life … to stop the regime.”

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Iraq refugee who painted patriotic art gunned down for looking Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Muslim man who was gunned down in the parking lot of a Home Depot store in Sacramento, California, was targeted because of his religion, according to authorities.

Detectives have named Jeffrey Michael Caylor, 44, as the shooting suspect. Caylor is currently in custody on unrelated charges and will face a charge of murder for this incident upon his extradition to Sacramento County Jail, according to the sheriff’s office.

Detectives believe Caylor’s stalked and killed Hassan Alawsi, 46, at a Home Depot store on March 16 because he had a “severe hatred” of people of Middle Eastern descent. Caylor allegedly told relatives he hated Muslim people because of a business dispute. “It seems he has a dislike for what he describes as a Muslim community,” Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Jim Barnes said.

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Piggin ‘idolised’ Israeli terrorist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael Piggin No More Mosques graffitiThe Daily Mail has an update on the Michael Piggin trial.

We already knew that Piggin “glorified” former English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”), but it turns out he had another source of inspiration.

The Mail reports that the jury was shown “online chats with his friends in which he idolised religious extremist Baruch Goldstein, who went on a killing spree in a mosque”.

The reference is to the Hebron massacre in 1994, when the Kahanist terrorist Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian worshippers at the Ibrahim Mosque, killing 29 and wounding another 125.

‘My hell as a white Muslim living in Bristol’: Woman says she is racially abused every day

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol Post My Hell front pageAssaults, insults, sly remarks and threats. All have been hurled at Kelly Ziane since she converted to Islam at the tender age of 18. She was not coerced, nor did she change her religion in order to marry – she did so because she believed it was the “right” faith for her.

For a white girl from Bedminster it was a bold and radical change to make, something she has been reminded of on numerous occasions since then. But the 36-year-old mum-of-three has not wavered from Islam – she says her skin has grown thicker and her resolve stronger, even when she felt forced to take her children out of their primary school because she was racially abused by another parent.

Kelly contacted the Bristol Post after we reported on a racially motivated assault in a Bedminster shop last week.

She said: “I saw the news the other night, about the Muslim women attacked at Poundstretcher in East Street, and there was a police officer saying racist incidents are very rare in Bristol. In my experience, that’s not the case at all.

“I converted to Islam 19 years ago. I grew up in Bedminster and over the last ten years it’s got a lot worse. I don’t have enough fingers to count on my hands the number of incidents. It gets to the stage where you don’t see the point in reporting everything that happens to you. I know I should, and I would urge everyone to report hate crimes, no matter how small.

“The insults used to bother me, but over the years you get used to blocking it out and carrying on with your life. If you let it get to you, you would end up feeling so hateful towards everyone. You have to have strength, otherwise you might end up thinking I can’t do this, it’s not for me.”

Kelly said the abuse has varied over the years, from being spat at by a man who tried to pull off her headdress (hijab) on her way home from work, to being called a “Paki” and a “raghead” by women in shops, to the ignorance of being asked whether she speaks English in everyday situations.

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Bullet fired at Illinois mosque during prayer service

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A bullet was reportedly fired through the dome of an Orland Park mosque Tuesday morning, damaging the building during a early morning prayer service.

No one was hurt when the single shot was fired through the dome of the mosque a few minutes after 6 a.m. during the Fajr, or break-of-dawn prayer, according to a statement from the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The bullet penetrated the dome and caused debris to fall and disrupt the service, according to the statement. About 40 people were in the prayer center at the time.

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Neo-Nazi who plotted to blow up Mersey mosques branded ‘evil’ by judge

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ian Forman at Hitler's Berghof residence
Ian Forman at Berchtesgaden in 2012 during a pilgrimage to Adolf Hitler’s Berghof residence

A neo-Nazi who plotted to blow up Merseyside mosques was branded “evil” by a judge today.

Terror suspect Ian Forman, 42, from Birkenhead, planned to explode home-made devices packed with nails and ball-bearings. He downloaded pictures of two mosques near his home and labelled them “targets” before making a string of YouTube posts threatening to “blow them up”.

He stockpiled potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal, and drew up a shopping list of bomb components after months of internet research. The Hitler obsessive then created spreadsheets for the prices of chemicals needed for homemade bombs, and where they would be stocked.

Forman, who frequently expressed his racist ideology and views against the disabled to friends and workmates, also posted on YouTube about “Mosques lighting up the sky to keep us warm in the winter”.

A jury of seven men and five women at Kingston Crown Court today found Forman guilty of engaging in conduct in the preparation of terrorist acts.

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French airforce sergeant who planned to shoot Muslims has case dismissed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Forqane mosque demonstrationThe Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France draws our attention to reports that Christophe Lavigne, a sergeant in the French airforce with far-right links, will not now be prosecuted.

Lavigne was arrested last August and charged with planning an armed attack on worshippers at the Al Forqane mosque in the Lyon suburb of Vénissieux to coincide with the end of Ramadan.

Judges had already dismissed the charge against Lavigne of possessing ammunition in connection with a terrorist enterprise, on the grounds that the bullets were of a grade permitted for collectors of historical weapons and so were not illegal. This ruling has now been confirmed by the court of appeal in Paris.

Lavigne will stand trial in June on a charge of desecration of a place of worship in connection with a terrorist enterprise, having reportedly confessed to an earlier firebomb attack on a mosque in Libourne.

The CCIF comments: “There is no doubt that he represents a real terrorist threat, as he has already shown in practice by throwing a Molotov cocktail at the mosque in Libourne in August 2012. So how could this armed, dangerous and recidivist Islamophobe have been able to escape conviction and not be expelled from the French armed forces either?”

(Photo of demonstration outside Al Forqane mosque in August 2013 following Lavigne’s arrest: Abdel Malik)

Jury shown videos of Michael Piggin throwing firebomb and spraying anti-Muslim graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael Piggin No More Mosques graffitiA jury has been shown a video of a teenager accused of planning a repeat of the Columbine massacre throwing a molotov cocktail in an alley. Michael Piggin is accused of arming himself with guns and explosives as he plotted a terrorist attack on staff and pupils at his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire.

The teenager, who was 17 when he was arrested but can now be named after turning 18, also identified his college, Loughborough mosque, a local cinema, Loughborough University and the town’s council offices as potential targets, the Old Bailey has heard.

The jury was shown a video of Piggin lighting a rag stuffed inside a bottle of flammable liquid and then throwing it. It explodes leaving a trail of flames on the ground and up an exterior wall. Piggin then inspects the small fire and pours cola on it before walking away swigging from the drink bottle.

A second video was shown to the courtroom of Piggin writing anti-Muslim graffiti on a wall. The teenager is seen spray-painting “No More Mosques!” in large black letters.

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Racists abuse and assault Muslim women, try to pull off hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cousins who were born and brought up in Bristol were subjected to a verbal and physical racist attack as they shopped in Bedminster.

Both from Pakistani families, they were allegedly abused by a grandmother and at least one of her granddaughters in Poundstretcher on East Street. One was reduced to tears as she was said to be punched in the face, shoulder and neck as her attacker tried to pull her head dress off. Minutes earlier, the other cousin was called an “illegal immigrant” as she stood in a queue, minding her own business.

The crime took place between 9.30am and 10am last Thursday and Avon and Somerset police earlier released CCTV images of the prime suspect, a white woman aged in her late teens or early 20s, in a bid to track her down. The police have since asked the Bristol Post to remove the photo from this online article.

Both victims have spoken to the Post, but do not want to be named for fear of further attacks.

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Michael Piggin terror plot trial shown anti-Muslim video

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A teenager accused of planning a terror attack made videos containing threats against Muslims, a court heard. The jury at the Old Bailey were shown footage of Michael Piggin, 18, talking about an “invasion of our country”.

He is alleged to have planned attacks on targets in his hometown of Loughborough, Leicestershire, including a mosque, a cinema and a school. The teenager denies two charges under the Terrorism Act but has admitted having explosives found in his house.

The jury heard the defendant referring to the URA in several of the clips, which they were told stood for the Urban Revolutionary Army. In one video, Mr Piggin, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, said: “Hello great people of the United Kingdom, we are the URA, we support the EDL and the Knights Templar. We are against the Muslim invasion of our country. If you are looking at us… we will kill you, yeah – we are willing to take arms to fight for this country.”

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