Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Man threatened to shoot up San Antonio mosque, police say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Islamic Center of San Antonio logoAuthorities said a man vowed to shoot up a San Antonio mosque and then turn the gun on himself, but law enforcement foiled the violent plot before it ever materialized.

Worshippers prayed Tuesday night at the Islamic Academy of San Antonio amid an atmosphere of concern. “Very bad news for us,” said Solomon Hamideh, president of the Islamic Academy of San Antonio.

According to an affidavit, Christopher Bane “had intentions of going to a mosque in the Medical Center area and was going to shoot as many people” as he could, and then shoot himself. A witness, who police are not identifying for safety concerns, said Bane told him he had a .45 caliber handgun and ammunition.

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Jewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders condemn attack at Queens mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid Al-Saaliheen interfaith eventJewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders from Queens gathered with lawmakers to denounce the possible hate crime committed at a Kew Gardens Hills Mosque earlier this month, and city Comptroller John Liu suggested some of the NYPD’s policies could make bias crimes more common.

“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” said Imam Shamsi Ali, of the Jamaica Muslim Center, who gathered religious leaders from around Flushing in the wake of the Nov. 18 attack.

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Welsh Muslims report widespread racist abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

RCC reportThe Institute of Race Relations draws our attention to a Wales Online report on a new study of racism and race equality in Wales by Professor Heaven Crawley that was commissioned by Race Council Cymru.

It found people from minority ethnic backgrounds in Wales are still experiencing racism in health, education and housing services, as well as in employment. And in many cases when racism occurs, it found victims are not reporting or challenging it, but instead changing their behaviours, language and clothing to “fit in”.

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Vicious attack on Muslim woman in Plaistow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

http://youtu.be/G2NsGAsbQlQ

The 16-year-old victim of a brutal street attack said last night that she hoped to be the last victim of the stranger who knocked her unconscious.

The teenage student, who collapsed to the pavement after one powerful punch in Plaistow, east London, explained she wanted the thug to be caught so that he could not injure anybody else.

She said she had “no idea” what was about to happen when he ran up behind her in broad daylight as she walked to college and viciously swung at her. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the teenager said that “the next thing she knew”, she was waking up in an ambulance taking her to hospital.

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France sees alarming rise in Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt
Poitiers mosque protest (2)

Génération Identitaire supporters stage protest against Poitiers mosque

French Muslims have become the target of a marked increase in Islamophobic violence and actions, as well as incendiary statements by politicians, over the last two years, according to a report by a leading anti-racism observatory.

The number of racist acts against Muslims in France is increasing “alarmingly”, according to the country’s National Observatory of Islamophobia, whose president has called for overt Islamophobia to be taken as seriously as anti-Semitism, which is a criminal offence in France.

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Arson attack on West Bank mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vandals set fire to the entrance of a West Bank mosque on Monday, damaging the door, in an attack that villagers blamed on Jewish settlers.

Residents of the Palestinian village of Orif, near the city of Nablus, said a group of settlers from a nearby settlement came to the mosque before dawn, poured gasoline on an old carpet near the mosque’s door, and set it ablaze.

“The settlers tried to break into the mosque, but it was locked,” Orif resident Issam al-Safadi told Reuters. “So they settled with burning the old carpet and the door.”

Israeli rights group B’tselem says vigilante settler groups are suspected of vandalizing at least 10 mosques in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 2009.

Reuters, 19 November 2012

Update:  See “Israeli settlers burn mosque in Palestinian village”, Press TV, 19 November 2012

Dundee man who threw a sword at Muslims and threatened to kill them faces jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Grant RobertsonA Dundee man hurled a sword at three Muslim men as they stood outside a block of flats after escaping from a fire, a court has heard.

Grant Robertson, 28, launched a tirade of abuse at the three men following the incident on 26 January.

At Dundee Sheriff Court, Robertson pleaded guilty to a charge of acting in a racially aggravated manner and to assaulting the men. Sheriff Elizabeth Munro released him on bail ahead of sentencing next month.

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.”

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EDL supporter denies joining attack on Kingston Mosque, says he ‘wanted nothing to do with it’

Posted on by Bob Pitt
Henry Hunter with stick

Henry Hunter

A protester photographed holding a stick near Kingston Mosque has claimed he was in “the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Henry Hunter handed himself in to police after being pictured on the front page of the Surrey Comet, following an appeal to find more suspects in the attack on the East Road mosque on November 21, 2010.

At Kingston Crown Court, Mr Hunter denied being part of the group who threw sticks, beer bottles and bacon at the Muslim place of worship, and said he felt scared at what he saw.

He said he was part of the protest march against Muslim extremism that had taken place earlier that day, which concluded peacefully.

But a mob of men targetted the mosque after the march. Mr Hunter admitted going with the group to East Road, but said he broke away when they started throwing objects.

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