Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Anti-mosque leaflet in Chipping Norton warns that David Cameron has ‘set up a special task force to ensure your children kneel before Allah’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tahirul Hasan with anti-mosque leafletA man hoping to create a mosque in Chipping Norton said he was shocked and upset after receiving a “nasty” leaflet through his door.

As previously reported in the Journal, town councillor Tahirul Hasan hopes to open a Muslim place of worship in the town. The father-of-three was set to convert a shop in Hitchman’s Mews into a mosque after securing planning permission in February.

But after the plans were approved, the shop’s landlord George Wissinter received a sinister phone call threatening to burn it down if the plans went ahead and Mr Hasan’s plans were left in tatters.

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Midlands terror bomb mosques see security tightened

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Aisha Mosque bomb disposal teamCounter-terrorism police are drawing up security plans for three mosques which were hit by bombs, experts have revealed.

They are assessing the Kanzul Iman Central Jamia Mosque in Binfield Street, Tipton, where a nail bomb exploded in July. A review is also under way to see if extra CCTV cameras should be provided nearby.

Meanwhile, police are advising bosses at Wolverhampton Central Mosque, where officers found evidence of the “seat of an explosion” in July, as well as Aisha Mosque and Islamic Centre in Rutter Street, Walsall, where a home-made bomb went off in June.

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Muslim woman wearing niqab is attacked on Tyne and Wear Metro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A young Muslim woman has spoken out after being attacked on the Metro for wearing her burka and face veil.

Yasmin Bint Shafiq, 22, was travelling on the Tyne and Wear Metro close to Manors Station when a man tried to pull her face veil from her head. Other passengers were visibly uncomfortable with the situation but noone stepped in to help her.

Yasmin, from Whitley Bay, said: “There was a person behind me who I didn’t notice. There was a man about late twenties who came and sat next to me, he goes ‘I want to see your face.’ I didn’t say anything so he put his arm around me, grabbed me and tried to pull, physically pull, my headscarf and my face veil off. His friends had to come and pull him off.”

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Racist teenager who thought of bombing mosque wanted ‘revolution’ to bring EDL and BNP to power, court told

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A teenage neo-Nazi accused of planning a “new Columbine” massacre thought about attacking a mosque when he was teased about being gay, a court heard.

The 17-year-old EDL member told a friend he had walked down to the local mosque in Loughborough, Leicestershire, after a bust-up with his brother, but “didn’t do anything”.

He confessed during Facebook chats to being consumed with “rage, hate, sadness and depression”, and got irate when taunted about not having a girlfriend, the Old Bailey heard.

The teen, who cannot be named because of his age, is accused of stockpiling knives, explosives, petrol and pipe bombs, and air guns in his bedroom while plotting a terrorist attack.

He allegedly wanted to carry out a Columbine High School-style massacre at his former school, and also planned to target Loughborough University, the local cinema, and council offices.

The teenager, who hung a Nazi swastika on his bedroom wall, was allegedly a white power fanatic who hated Muslims, the court has heard.

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Arson attack on Gdansk mosque follows halal slaughter row

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gdansk mosque arson

A Polish imam has claimed an alleged arson attack on a mosque was “revenge” for the Chief Mufti of Poland’s pledge to continue the banned practice of halal slaughter.

A fire began at the mosque in Gdansk, northern Poland, at about 4.40 am local time on Wednesday, damaging doors and parts of the elevation. The incident coincided with the holiday of Eid-al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, one of the two most important religious observances for Muslims.

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Moscow: Nationalist mob in anti-migrant riot

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Massive rioting in Moscow after migrant accused of killing local

Moscow is reeling from its worst bout of ethnic unrest in three years after the alleged murder of a young Muscovite by a foreign immigrant last week.

Nationalist mobs rampaged through the streets of a southern suburb on Sunday after the murder of 25-year-old Yegor Sherbakov, chanting “Muslims are the shame of Russia.” The gang turned over cars, blocked streets and fought running battles with riot police late into the night.

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Why the English Defence League is not ‘an irrelevance’: A response to Mehdi Hasan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al-Rahma Islamic Centre fire (3)
Muswell Hill’s al-Rahma Islamic Centre ablaze – with the letters “EDL” visible on the wall of the burning building

“Who needs Tommy Robinson and the EDL, when Islamophobia has gone mainstream?” The question is posed by Mehdi Hasan at the New Statesman and Huffington Post.

He provides some good illustrations of how the bigoted rhetoric of former English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) is barely distinguishable from the anti-Muslim propaganda of the mainstream media. Mehdi of course has a point here. Indeed, it has long been obvious that, in addition to the inspiration provided by the international “counterjihad” movement, a large part of the EDL’s ideology derives from right-wing newspapers like the Mail, the Express and the Daily Star. However, Mehdi concludes from this that Lennon “is an irrelevance. So, for that matter, is the EDL. The hate-filled antics of these balaclava-clad thugs have distracted us from a much bigger issue: Islamophobia went mainstream long ago, with the shameless complicity of sections of the press.”

This seems to me to be a false argument. That the existence of mainstream Islamophobia is often either underestimated or denied outright is undoubtedly true. And Mehdi is correct to stress that “the denialism about rampant Islamophobia, on the left and the right, has to stop”. But this shouldn’t lead us to ignore the fact that the EDL, and Lennon personally, have played a distinct role in inflaming the Islamophobic sentiments of a thuggish minority among the population and encouraging them to translate their anti-Muslim hatred into violent action.

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Far-right activists admit Gloucester mosque arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-E-Noor arson

Two men have admitted an arson attack on a Gloucester mosque. Clive Michael Ceronne, 37, and Ashley Henry Juggins, 20, both pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

The pair attempted to set fire to the Masjid-E-Noor in the city’s Ryecroft Street on June 18 this year. Ceronne, a former security guard of Redwood Close, in Gloucester and Juggins, of Brooklyn Road in Cheltenham will be sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on November 18.

The court previously heard the pair had bought lager, vodka and a petrol can of fuel from a London Road garage before using the fuel to set fire to the place of worship by owned by the Muslim Welfare Association. A passer-by saw the fire and helped put it out, before severe damage was caused. The attack came in the wake of the death of Drummer Lee Rigby.

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Ontario: Muslim students subject to hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Six Queen’s students are the victims of a hate crime that took place on Sunday, according to Kingston police.

The male students, who self-identify as Muslim, were walking home from Empire Theatres near Division St. and Highway 401 at approximately 1:30 a.m. when they were assaulted by four Caucasian males. The assault itself happened closer to the downtown core, at Fraser and Patrick Streets.

Approximated to be between 18-25 years old, the group approached the students on bicycles, yelling hate-based profanities and racial slurs while wielding a baseball bat.

One of the victims of the attack said they were approached by the males, who were drunk and offering to sell them drugs. “As they turned onto Fraser St. these four guys started chasing [us] who are all Muslim and they started screaming out … foul languages and racial hate speeches,” the student said, adding they originally thought the attackers wielded a machete.

“We were terrified because we thought it was really a machete and the guy was going to literally slit open and kill everyone,” he said. “They caught one guy and they hit him on the biceps and the thigh area, but it turned out to be a baseball bat, not a machete.”

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Nazi-obsessed teen had ‘shopping list of ingredients for a bomb’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Nazi-obsessed teenager drew up a shopping list of bomb ingredients and wrote out a detailed plan for his Columbine-style school massacre, the Old Bailey heard today (Thurs).

The 16-year-old college student planned to shoot dead teachers and unarmed police before taking hostages in the deadly attack, it is said. He allegedly wrote a plan to kill students with explosives and chain the exits shut, ending his note with the words “good luck” and a smiley face.

The teenager, now 17 who cannot be named because of his age, is accused of plotting terrorist attacks on his former school in Loughborough, Leicestershire, as well as his college, the council offices, Loughborough university, and even the local Reel cinema.

He had been stockpiling knives, air guns, petrol and pipe bombs, and explosives in his bedroom in preparation for the attack prior to his arrest in February, the court heard.

Prosecutor Gareth Patterson today showed jurors the teen’s handwritten notes on “Operation New Columbine” from a Che Guevara book daubed with EDL and Nazi slogans.

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