The graves of a cemetery in the Val-de-Marne suburb of the French capital were found destroyed on Sunday. It is reported that the marble headstones were broken and ornaments thrown about.
President of the Observatory against Islamophobia Abdellah Zekri said, “I condemn the cowardice of these individuals who attack cemeteries, and dead people. We demand that the authorities step in, in the midst of this unhealthy environment.”
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown denounces drone attacks against the populations of Muslim-majority countries as “state-sponsored, state-activated, state-engineered terrorism”. She writes: “Western leaders are blindingly proud of their democracies and human rights but how much better are they today than the Muslim terrorists they are trying to defeat? In fact, in terms of numbers of innocent dead, they are a good deal worse.”
Well, that’s what Brendan O’Neill argues at the Telegraph. He asserts that there is no sign of any mass outbreak of anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States following the Boston bombing. But then, O’Neill is part of a political tendency – formerly the ultra-left Revolutionary Communist Party but now organised around the right-wing libertarian online magazine spiked, whose adherents have long argued that Islamophobia is a myth.
The government is “finally dealing” with Islamophobia in the UK, the minister for faith and communities has said in a personal film made for the BBC.
Baroness Warsi visited the Altrincham Islamic Cultural Centre and heard from trustee Amjad Latif about relations with the local community, and attacks on people and buildings.
The former Conservative Party chairman looked at problems relating to attacks and discrimination against ethnic communities, and recalled her description of the ‘dinner table test’.
The owner of a halal butchers said people sleeping in the flat upstairs were lucky to survive after suspected arsonists set fire to his shop.
Police were yesterday investigating the cause of a fire at Ummah Halal Butchers in Queen’s Park Road, Blackburn.
Firefighters were called to the scene at 3am yesterday and when they arrived they found smoke coming from the front door and a fire inside. Six people in the flat above the shop, including two children, managed to get out unharmed after a passer-by saw the fire and alerted the fire service.
That’s the headline to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, the consequence (and no doubt the intention) of which can only be to associate the hijab with terrorism.
This is during the same week in which it was reported that one headscarf-wearing Muslim woman in Bristol had been threatened with a knife, while another in Massachusetts was attacked by a man shouting “F*** You, F*** Muslims, You are terrorists”.
CAIR reports that a mother of Middle Eastern heritage wearing an Islamic headscarf, or hijab, was assaulted yesterday morning in Malden, Mass., by a white male shouting anti-Muslim slurs.
The victim told CAIR the attack occurred when she was walking with another Muslim woman also wearing hijab, while both were pushing baby strollers. She said the alleged attacker shouted, “F*** You, F*** Muslims, You are terrorists,” and struck her forcefully on the shoulder. The man, who appeared to be in his 30s, also reportedly made statements blaming Muslims for the Boston Marathon bombings.
TOLEDO, Ohio — A federal judge sentenced a former Marine from Indiana to 20 years in prison Tuesday for starting a fire inside an Ohio mosque because he wanted revenge for the killings of American soldiers overseas.
Randy Linn, 52, apologized in court and blamed what happened on a day of heavy drinking. He said late last year while pleading guilty that he’d become enraged after seeing images of wounded soldiers in the news and decided to burn the mosque.
U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary ordered Linn, of St. Joe, Ind., to pay $1.4 million for the damages caused by the fire.
Demonstration against racist violence in Athens last August
The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights has told Greece to toughen its measures to combat a surge in massive racial violence.
The council published a report on Tuesday, in which Nils Muiznieks said that he was “seriously concerned” by the increase in hate crimes targeting immigrants in the southern European nation.
“Democracy in Greece is seriously threatened by the upsurge of hate crime and a weak state response. Sustained and concerted action, notably by the police and the courts, is necessary to protect the rule of law and human rights in the country,” said Muiznieks.
Police are looking for the SUV driver who followed a man leaving a Queens mosque Friday night and threatened him with a gun at a traffic light while using anti-Muslim slurs.
Authorities say the victim left a mosque on Kissena Boulevard in Kew Gardens Hills at about 8 p.m. and got into his car. After he had been driving for a few blocks, he noticed a man in a dark SUV was following him.
The suspect trailed him for several more blocks, and pulled up next to him when he stopped at a trafficl ight on Union Turnpike, police said. The suspect then pulled out a gun and began threatening the victim’s life, according to police. He also made anti-Muslim statements before driving off.