A far right gang which allegedly posted racist abuse online, alongside pictures of them posing with guns, have been targeted by police raids.
Officers arrested a 30-year-old man yesterday in a series of raids in Shadsworth and Whitebirk in Blackburn. Two guns have also been seized.
The police operation came after a series of photos were published on Facebook. The investigation also centres on extremely offensive racist postings on the website.
Members of the Masjid Dar As-Salam Mosque in Charlottetown have made a complaint to police following what they believe is the latest in a series of threats.
The mosque, which was just opened in July, is the first purpose-built place of worship for Muslims on P.E.I.
On Thursday, people going to dawn prayer found a bottle that they say contained gasoline and posters saying “Defeat jihad” on the mosque doorstep. “A bottle containing gasoline is left on the doorsteps, you start wondering if the message that’s being sent involves arson,” said Zain Esseghaier, a spokesperson for the Muslim Society of P.E.I.
A former soldier wrote anti-Islamic comments on his Facebook page he started supporting the English Defence League (EDL).
Kenneth Holden, 30, was arrested after police were alerted to two updates he posted on his personal page on the social network site, abusing Muslims.
Holden, of Winskell Road, South Shields, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending an offensive message by a public communication network at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
El País reports that the Ibn Al-Abbar Islamic centre at Onda in eastern Spain has been the victim of an arson attack. The chairman of the centre’s committee, Milud Guettaf, said that it was only because the attack was on a part of the building where there are no carpets that the fire did not spread throughout the centre.
Guettaf added that worshippers had been subjected to racist abuse by an individual as they left the mosque the previous evening. He also referred to the role of the far-right group España 2000, which has a councillor in Onda, in whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment. In November last year España 2000 organised a demonstration in the town, protesting against the mosque and the “Islamist invasion”.
A commissionaire who allegedly posted comments online suggesting the Masjid Al-Iman Mosque on Quadra Street be blasted with a rocket launcher appeared in Victoria provincial court on Wednesday.
Daniel Kevin Speed is charged with causing fear of injury or damage. His defence lawyer, Bill Heflin, said Speed was expected to plead not guilty at his next court appearance on Oct. 3.
Islamic Society of Joplin building in flames on 6 August
A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today issued a preliminary report on a spike in anti-mosque incidents that occurred in late August following a massacre of Sikh worshippers in Oak Creek, Wis.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reports that in the 13-day period between August 6 and August 18, there were eight incidents in which Muslim places of worship were targeted. As a comparison, in the first seven months of 2012 there were 10 such incidents.
CAIR’s report comes one day before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights plans to hold a hearing on hate crimes and domestic extremism. It comes just after a mosque in Virginia was vandalized in an apparent bias incident.
Bradford man Ali Shaan, a spiritual leader who was born and grew up in the city, is one of dozens who have reported being the victim of a racist attack in the area this year. The number of unreported incidents is feared to be much higher.
Recently he was walking down Canal Road on his way to prayers, when three young men in a car shouted abuse and spat on him. “It was quite horrible and I was very upset after that,” the 20-year-old Bradford College student said. “Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. That is the kind of thing that seems to becoming more directed towards the muslim community.”
A man who verbally insulted a 55-year-old woman because of her ethnicity and threatened to punch her while she was waiting in line for a prescription at the Walgreen’s pharmacy at 324 North Main St. was arrested Saturday evening at his home and charged with hate crimes by West Hartford Police.
Michael John Germain, 68, of 725 Mountain Rd., was observed making “rude, offensive, and obnoxious comments for no reason” to a woman who was waiting in line at the pharmacy, said Lt. Jeff Rose of the West Hartford Police. The incident was reported by a pharmacy employee as well as the victim.
Many of the comments allegedly made by Germain included obsecenities which cannot be printed, Rose said. According to Rose, Germain was also heard saying, “I don’t like Muslims … get the hell out of here,” and also threatened to punch her.
There has been a new attack on a place of worship. According to the CFCM (French Council of the Muslim Faith) the mosque at Condé-sur-l’Escaut in northern France was the victim of an arson attack on the night of Thursday-Friday 14 September.