Sud-Ouest reports that a Muslim prayer room at Lesparre-Médoc in southwestern France has been victim both of an arson attack and of fascist graffiti.
Petrol was poured on the floor in front of the door in the early hours of Wednesday morning and a piece of burning paper was inserted into the letterbox, but the fire was extinguished before it could cause any serious damage.
When the police arrived they found a swastika had been sprayed on the front of the building.
A plasterer who smashed a window at a mosque in Huntingdon with a chair has been jailed. Gary Abbott, of no fixed abode, was arrested near Huntingdon Islamic Education and Prayer Centre in Coneygear Road on Thursday, May 30.
The 45-year-old was charged with racial or religiously aggravated criminal damage and was released on bail, only to return to the mosque on Sunday, June 2, when he was heard to shout obscenities. He was re-arrested and charged with religiously aggravated harassment.
Abbott admitted causing criminal damage but initially denied the harassment charge. He appeared at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court on Friday, July 26 and was sentenced to two weeks in prison for each offence, to be served consecutively.
In the early hours of Monday morning, as a 55-year-old woman returned home after Suhur (closing fast) at a friends, she was brutally attacked in London’s exclusive Mayfair area in the UK. A man grabbed her from behind and repeatedly punched her in the back of the head.
She fell to the ground face first, he continued his attack with added profanities against Muslims, Ramadhan and Islam. He then grabbed her headscarf that was around her neck and then dragged her along the pavement.
The woman was bleeding and the attacker had her blood on his hands and clothes. In his final act of cowardice he slapped her across the face with his blood-stained hands leaving an imprint of it on her face. She fell unconscious as he ran away leaving her in the street.
The victim was treated in hospital and may need surgery to her face. IHRC has been supporting the victim and the matter has been reported to the Metropolitan police.
Chesterfield’s Muslim community claims it has suffered an increase in racist abuse after the alleged murder of soldier Lee Rigby.
Two thugs who were convicted for being racially abusive on Cavendish Street in the town claimed they had been angered by the death of Fusilier Lee Rigby who was allegedly hacked to death in Woolwich, in May, by two converts to Islam.
Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard how Peter Levers, 33, of Circular Road, Staveley, was caught shouting, “Muslims, I’ll kill them all”, and in a separate case involving Mark Carr, 41, of Holme Road, Chesterfield, two Muslim women were subjected to racist abuse and swear-words during an incident where the comment “go back to your own country” was heard.
A Chesterfield Muslim Welfare Association spokesman, who did not want to be named, said: “The issue seems to have been about Woolwich which has affected the Muslim community. Some groups have latched on to it and used it for their twisted purposes, and the Chesterfield Muslim community is suffering with abuse, but we try and get on with our lives.”
A man used Facebook to urge friends to murder Muslims on the day Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in Woolwich.
Paul Fisher, 28, today admitted that his racist message was “intended to incite others to carry out serious violence and kill others”. Fisher, from Livingston, pleaded guilty on indictment to conducting himself in a disorderly manner and committing a breach of the peace by his abuse of the social media website on May 22.
The Crown will reveal details of the offensive messages Fisher posted when he returns to Livingston Sheriff Court for sentence in three weeks’ time. Sheriff Graeme Fleming QC called for criminal justice social work reports and an assessment of Fisher’s suitability for home curfew and unpaid work before adjourning the case.
A man who revealed a tattoo of a mosque being blown up during an EDL rally has been arrested after he was exposed by Sky Tyne and Wear.
Shaun Reah, 39, has been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after he was pictured lifting up his T-shirt to reveal an image of a Muslim place of worship with “BOOM!” emblazoned across it.
Marwan Muhammad, Elsa Rayand and Michaël Privot argue that “governments urgently need to take action against Islamophobic violence”. They argue:
“There is a tendency to view hostility and violence towards Muslims as normal and acceptable. Prejudice against Muslims does not always carry the same social stigma as prejudice against other ethnic and religious groups.”
A first step would be to “officially recognise Islamophobia as a specific form of racism”.
Frankie Martin reports on the experiences of Greek Muslims facing violent oppression at the hands of the far-right party Golden Dawn, often with the connivance of the police.
He sees hope in the stand many Greeks are taking in opposition to the racism and xenophobia of the neo-Nazis.
On Friday 26 July the Orléans criminal court sentenced a man who had carried out a triple racist assault to two years in prison, 18 months of which was suspended.
On 14 June in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orléans an individual assaulted three women, a mother wearing a headscarf and her two daughters, severely beating them and abusing them with shouts of “Dirty Arab” , “I hate your religion” , “You are a dirty race” and “You Arab women, you’re good for nothing”. It was an outburst of violence that the perpetrator explained by his hostility towards people of North African origin and the Muslim religion.
The Collectif contre l’islamophobie en France (CCIF), which was a civil party in the case, emphasised that it was important that the prejudice against the victim had been recognised. For the association, “the verdict must send a strong signal to all those who incite hatred or are tempted to translate this into action”.
Fait-religieux.com, 27 July 2013
See also Le Monde, 27 July 2013
The Board of Deputies, senior rabbis and the Joseph Interfaith Foundation have together released a statement on behalf of the Jewish community expressing their “sadness and concern” at a recent rise in Islamophobic attacks following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby.
The statement said that recent bombings of mosques such as those in Walsall and Wolverhampton were “truly shocking”. It continued: “We utterly condemn and abhor these hateful actions against the Muslim community. It is particularly distressing that these attacks are taking place during the holy month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, praying, acts of generosity and charity from Muslims.”