Sud Ouest reports that a Molotov cocktail has been thrown at Muslim prayer hall at Le Barp in south-west France, which had already suffered three racist graffiti attacks by fascists this year (see here and here).
Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence
Arsonist faces 20 years in prison for attack on Toledo Islamic centre – but this doesn’t address wider problem of anti-Muslim hatred
Randolph Linn is behind bars after pleading guilty to federal arson and related crimes committed at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, but local Muslim leaders are concerned there may be more people like him out there.
Linn, a 52-year-old truck driver and ex-Marine from St. Joe, Ind., was initially charged with one count each of intentionally damaging religious property and using fire or explosives in commission of a felony for the Sept. 30 arson attack. A third charge, of using a firearm to commit a crime of violence, was added by a grand jury Dec. 18.
He pleaded guilty to all three counts in U.S. District Court in Toledo on Dec. 19 as part of a binding agreement and could be sentenced to 20 years in prison in April. He will also be required to pay a $250,000 fine and restitution that may exceed $1 million.
Athens – the only EU capital city without a mosque
Golden Dawn poster
Mark Lowen has an interesting piece at BBC News on the struggle by the Muslim population of Athens to build the first mosque in the city.
As things stand, Muslims are forced to pray in cramped underground prayer rooms, in breach of the law and facing the threat of attacks by the anti-migrant fascist party Golden Dawn.
“It is a very big tragedy for us Muslims that there is no mosque here,” Syed Mohammad Jamil of the Pakistan-Hellenic Society is quoted as saying. “Greece produced democracy and civilisation and the respect of religion – but they don’t respect our Muslims to provide us with a regular, legal mosque.”
Man who threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque is jailed
A man threatened to blow up a Glasgow mosque and claimed he had a bomb in his backpack. Fraser Rae was jailed for the incident at the city’s Central Mosque on Thursday.
The 28-year-old launched a racist tirade when he entered the site in the south side of Glasgow and told followers at the mosque that he had a bomb inside his backpack and they should run away. Rae, of Johnstone in Renfrewshire, also shouted that he had a gun and threatened to shoot those near him.
Indiana man says he set fire at Ohio mosque to get payback for US soldiers killed overseas
A former Marine from Indiana admitted Wednesday that he broke into a mosque in Ohio and set fire to a prayer rug because he wanted revenge for the killings of American troops overseas.
Randy Linn pleaded guilty to hate crime charges, saying he’d become enraged after seeing images of wounded soldiers in the news. “Every day you turn on the TV, you see Muslims trying to kill Americans,” said Linn, a truck driver from St. Joe. When asked by a federal judge whether he thought all Muslims are terrorists, he answered: “I’d say most of them are.”
Florida: woman with sword arrested at Muslim school and mosque
ORLANDO — A woman is under arrest after carrying a sword onto a school campus.
Just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, Orange County deputies responded to the Leaders Preparatory School on North Goldenrod Road, which includes a mosque, school and day care. They found 47-year-old Dominique Eloi walking out of the mosque carrying the weapon.
A school employee said Eloi exited her vehicle with the 2-foot sword and did not respond to the employee when asked what business she had on the property. Leaders Preparatory was immediately placed on lockdown as the employee called deputies.
Eloi was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, disrupting a school function and aggravated assault with a weapon.
Central Florida News, 19 December 2012
See also “CAIR-FL urges stepped-up security after woman with sword arrested at mosque, Muslim school”, CAIR press release, 19 December 2012
Threatening graffiti on Mallorca mosque
The Balearic Islands daily Última Hora reports that a mosque in the Mallorca town of Sa Pobla has been sprayed with graffiti featuring a picture of an explosive device accompanied by the word “bomb”. The entrance to the building has also been marked with an “X” on the ground. It is suggested that the graffiti may have been in response to a court decision to release two minors who had been accused of rape.
Another charge filed against suspected Toledo mosque arsonist
A third crime has been added to the charges filed against an Indiana man arrested for the arson fire at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.
Randolph Linn, 52, of St. Joe, Indiana, was charged in October with one count each of intentionally defacing, damaging, and destroying religious property and using a fire to commit a felony. Today, a federal grand jury also indicted him on a charge of using and carrying a firearm to commit a crime of violence.
Dundee man jailed for throwing sword at Muslims
A Dundee man who hurled a sword at three Muslim men after they escaped from a fire has been jailed for almost two years.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Grant Robertson also shouted racist abuse at the men as they waited for the fire service outside their flat on 26 January.
Robertson pleaded guilty to a charge of acting in a racially aggravated manner. The 28-year-old also admitted a second charge of assaulting the three men.
The court heard that when he was arrested Robertson told police: “I threw my sword out the window at them, I wish it got them in the throat.”
In wake of Wisconsin temple murders, Muslims remain ‘enemy du jour’
Paul Fanlund talks to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Capital Times, 17 December 2012
See also Mark Potok, “The lessons of Wisconsin”, Intelligence Report, Winter 2012