Muslims in America and Europe say discrimination against them has seemed more pronounced after the Islamic State terrorists beheaded American and British journalists and aid workers. Hate-filled remarks on social media have also become more prevalent, especially since 9/11, when Facebook and Twitter did not yet exist.
Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence
Muslim student’s headscarf torn off as she’s branded ‘terrorist p*ki’
A 19-year-old Muslim student was subjected to a sickening racial attack in Piccadilly Gardens yesterday – as her headscarf was torn from her head.
Maryam*, a first-year photojournalism undergraduate at Staffordshire University, was confronted by a group of white girls after expressing her disgust at the way they were treating a beggar.
Yet she was subjected to a torrent of racial and physical abuse by the gang, which left her in tears. The gang shouted: “Go back to your country you f*cking terrorist p*ki, I will bomb your face off.” Then they slapped her face, before pulling her headscarf off and kicking her on the left side on the hips.
“What bothered me was what she said. The words hit me more than the physical attacks,” Maryam said. “You know when you hear these things being said and you get really upset that people are saying these things, but try having someone screaming it to your face. I felt weak. I feel horrible from shock I started crying. My friend, from the shock stood there didn’t know what she was doing.”
The group of girls had initially hit out at a Hijabi beggar, telling her to “go back to your own country” and “if I went to your country and begged for money I would get kidnapped and killed”.
Shots fired at California mosque
Someone opened fire on a mosque in Coachella early Tuesday and the shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
At about 5 a.m., investigators were called to the Islamic Society of the Coachella Valley, 84-650 Avenue 49, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
They determined several shots were fired at the building and a Toyota Corolla that was parked outside. Two bullet holes were visible in front of the mosque and two in the car.
The mosque was occupied at the time of the attack, but no one was injured, according to the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), citing police sources. One worshiper said four people were inside.
Investigators surrounded the one-story building with yellow tape and blocked westbound lanes. Other details haven’t been released and investigators ask anyone with information to call (760) 863-8990.
CAIR-LA is calling for an FBI investigation.
Police investigate vandalism at Ottawa mosque
A rock-hurling man smashed windows at a south Ottawa mosque early Friday in an act of vandalism that the vice-president of the mosque suspects is a hate crime.
Surveillance video at the Assunnah Muslims Association mosque recorded the man in a hoodie, shorts and sneakers throwing at least a half-dozen rocks at windows and the glass door of the women’s entrance to the mosque at 4:28 a.m. The stone thrower also shattered a large upper window and damaged the stucco on the west side of the mosque on Hunt Club Road near Bank Street. It’s estimated the vandalism caused more than $10,000 in damage.
Vice-president of the mosque Jalil Marhnouj said the vandal brought his own rocks. “When people came to pray here this morning, they saw the Ottawa police here and they saw the damage,” he said.
The vandalism at the mosque comes a little more than a week after Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo as he guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial on Oct. 22. Zehaf-Bibeau then made his way to the Centre Block of the Parliament buildings, where he shot and wounded a guard before being shot and killed himself.
A man who attended the mosque was later stopped on Oct. 25 by police as part of a national security investigation. Officials at the mosque said Luqman Abdunnur upset other members of the congregation when he stood up after a sermon on Oct. 24 and praised Zehaf-Bibeau as a martyr.
There is no evidence the vandalism at the mosque is connected to either incident. Ottawa police aren’t currently treating it as a hate crime.
Why online Islamophobia is difficult to stop
CBC News interviews Imran Awan, deputy director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, and Fiyaz Mughal of Tell MAMA on the rise of anti-Muslim hatred on the internet.
The far right is taking advantage of legal loopholes, notably the absence of an effective law against incitement to religious hatred, and reluctance by the authorities to take action against hate speech on social media, in order to target the Muslim community.
CBC also spoke to “Simon North” of the English Defence League who brazenly denies his organisation’s role in inciting anti-Muslim hatred online, claiming that “some Islamophobic messages might emanate from the group’s regional divisions. But they do not reflect the group’s overall thinking”.
Woman who had her veil ripped off her face hits out after sheriff allows racist attacker to dodge jail
Shirin Akter and her attacker Emiliano Sanchez
A mum whose religious veil was ripped off her face in the street last night hit out at the sentence handed to the racist who carried out the attack.
Emiliano Sanchez, 59, confronted Shirin Akter outside a Lidl store and asked her: “Why are you wearing this? This is not the Quran and it is not allowed in this country.” The Spaniard then pulled off her niqab and minutes later said to a Lidl worker: “Did you see that P**i? I told her to take that thing off her head.”
At Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Sanchez admitted harassing Shirin and acting in a racially aggravated manner towards her in the city last November. Sheriff Alayne Swanson said the offence was “serious enough” for Sanchez to be jailed but instead ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work in the community.
Mother-of-one Shirin, 32, who wears a full-face niqab in public for religious reasons, said last night: “He should have been sent to jail. The fact that he wasn’t sends out the wrong message to people. Racism is something which shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.
“I was left scared to go out with my six-year-old daughter and was living in fear of being attacked again. I was afraid every time I went out that it could happen again – it’s not the way people should have to live.
“I was very upset after the attack. I had a full face veil with just my eyes showing. It is important to me because it is my religious faith and I feel comfortable in public with it on.”
Taxi driver scarred for life after suspected race hate attack with knife
A taxi driver was stabbed in the face during an alleged race-hate attack, leaving him scarred for life.
Father-of-five Javad Iqbal, 48, needed six stitches after the attack in Rochdale, the Manchester Evening News reports. He was assaulted after dropping off a punter in the town just before 2am on Sunday. Mr Iqbal, from Deeplish, Rochdale, had to go to hospital and his Toyota Avensis was damaged during the incident.
It is believed to be the second stabbing of an Asian taxi driver in the borough in the last two weeks.
Mr Iqbal’s boss Abrar Hussain Junior, 43, director of No 1 Diamond Cars in Middleton, said: “One can only put it down as a hate crime. What else can it be? You don’t go around stabbing someone unless you have a beef with somebody.
“This is the second stabbing of taxi drivers in Rochdale borough in two weeks. Sadly, the drivers don’t get enough protection. If a taxi driver tries to restrain someone for not paying, the council will take their licence away.
“Two weeks ago another driver (at another firm) took a customer from Cheetham Hill to Middleton. He started kicking his car, ran into a house and brought out a knife and stabbed the driver in the face as well.
“I’ve worked in Middleton for the last 16 years. I’ve know taxi drivers be assaulted and I’ve known customers do runners. It happens all the time. It’s one of those things. We don’t even tell the police. We just get on with it. But I’ve never known a taxi driver to be stabbed.”
Albuquerque ‘peace walk’ to support Islamic Center
Several local organizations are sponsoring a “peace walk” in support of the Islamic Center of New Mexico following an attack last week in which someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the center’s building.
The walk will start at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, at the intersection of Harvard and Silver SE. It will proceed along Silver to Yale and head south on Yale to the Islamic Center at 1100 Yale SE, said Sue Schuurman of the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice.
This will be a family friendly walk open to anyone who wishes to participate, including children. Those who participate are asked to bring a candle and, if they wish, flowers.
At the Islamic Center a statement of support will be given to Imam Shafi Abdul Aziz, signed by groups and individuals within the community. The Islamic Center has invited the walkers to a reception at the center after the walk.
‘Go back to your f****** Muslim country’: Kiwi couple charged over Brisbane assault
A Kiwi couple who told a father and son to “go back to your f****** Muslim country” have been charged with assault in Australia.
Bronson Tamarama, 24, and Jayne Rikkiti, 25, allegedly punched a 15-year-old boy in the face during an fight at a local produce market in Brisbane in September. According to News Corporation, a father and his son were allegedly told by Tamarama to “go back to your own country…I will call my boys.”
Police said the victims were yelled at and sworn at by a carload of men. A punch was allegedly thrown at the father but missed and he fell back into a counter. Those who witnessed the attack and tried to intervene were also attacked.
Both Tamarama and Rikkiti have reportedly appeared in a Brisbane court and have been charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm.
Melbourne: Muslim woman suffers broken arm in racist attack
A Muslim woman is nursing a broken arm after being pushed onto a road in an unprovoked racist attack in Melbourne’s north.
The attack occurred outside a Lalor shopping centre in the middle of a weekday earlier this month. The 48-year-old woman, who was wearing a hijab and a “long Islamic dress”, had been shopping at Lalor Plaza and was on her way home when she was attacked. The woman’s daughter, Abrar Ahmed, saw the incident unfold from her car.
“A man approached my mum and said, ‘You Muslims, go back to where you came from’,” Ms Ahmed said. “As my mum turned around to see who was yelling at her in such a disgusting way, she saw this really big guy. He pushed her on the ground, she landed in the middle of the road. When she fell on the ground she broke her arm. She heard her bone crack.”
Ms Ahmed, who organised a recent protest against racism in the CBD, said attacks like the one on her mother were not uncommon. “A lot of other Muslim women, they have been going through worse assaults, they are being attacked in very different ways and they don’t have the courage to speak out.”