A leading French Muslim group says three mosques have been vandalized over the past week and is urging authorities to punish the perpetrators.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, said racist insults and Nazi slogans were scrawled on a mosque in the southeastern town of Tarascon and another in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Tuesday and Wednesday. It said the mosque in the southern town of Draguignan was vandalized May 17.
Nearly 88,000 racist incidents were recorded in Britain’s schools between 2007 and 2011, the BBC has found.
Data from 90 areas shows 87,915 cases of racist bullying, which can include name calling and physical abuse. Birmingham recorded the highest number of incidents at 5,752, followed by Leeds with 4,690.
In response to the local authority figures, obtained under a Freedom of Information request, the Department for Education said racism needed to be “rooted out”.
A reward is being offered in connection to a fire that destroyed a Wichita mosque.
Authorities said last week that an Oct. 31 fire at the Islamic Association of Mid-Kansas was intentionally set. The fire caused an estimated $150,000 in damage.
Capt. Stuart Bevis, Wichita Fire, said the fire remained under investigation for some time due to technical analysis being performed in Maryland. The Wichita Police department, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted with the case.
The ATF is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of the person who started the blaze. Anyone with the information about the incident should call ATF at 1-888-ATF-FIRE, FBI at 316-262-0031 or the Wichita Fire Department at 316-337-9146.
An 18-year-old has been charged with felony destruction of property for allegedly vandalizing a mosque that was under construction in Chantilly, Fairfax County police said.
Trenton M. Carter of the 14400 block of Round Lick Lane in the Centreville area was arrested May 3, police said. Carter and possibly other suspects allegedly threw rocks through most of the windows and door glass of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque in the 4500 block of Ahmadiyya Drive in January, police and mosque officials said.
Police declined to release other details about the suspect, but said more arrests could be made and the investigation into the vandalism is continuing.
Far right groups are exploiting the conviction of nine men who were part of a gang which groomed girls for sex to create a “climate of hate” against Muslims, community leaders have warned.
Muslim groups say they have seen an upsurge in hate mail and abusive phone calls since the trial ended this week and community leaders are bracing themselves for more Islamophobic attacks on individual Muslims and mosques across the UK.
“We are already receiving hate mail and hate phone calls even though we issued a very strong statement condemning those involved,” said a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. “If it can happen to MCB, you can just imagine what ordinary Muslims are facing as they go about their day-to-day business.”
The fire that heavily damaged a west Wichita mosque early on Halloween morning was an arson, a fire department official said today.
The fire at 3406 W. Taft, southeast of Maple and West streets, was reported at 12:45 a.m. on Oct. 31 and caused an estimated $120,000 in damage. The damage was so extensive the congregation only returned to the mosque last Friday, Capt. Stuart Bevis said.
Test results received from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lab in Maryland ruled out the last possible accidental source of the fire, Bevis said. That only leaves a fire set “by human hand” as the source of the fire, he said.
A drunken mum is behind bars today after a shocking race-hate attack – in which she pretended her child had been killed in Afghanistan.
Michelle Eager tried to pull off Zakir Mohammed’s religious headgear before spitting at her and then hitting the 24-year-old in the face. The 41-year-old, who was hurling foul abuse, then turned on Mrs Mohammed’s 17-year-old niece, Atif Khan, and also hit her in the face.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Eager, who was drunk, yelled at the women “you are from Afghanistan – you are not in Afghanistan now”. She then told them her son had been killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan – which was a lie.
A Shirley man has been summoned to appear at Solihull Magistrates Court after he allegedly ripped a veil from a Muslim woman’s face in Touchwood.
Police reported that Ian Brazier, 26, had grabbed the victim, also 26, by her head and removed her face covering as she walked past the Disney store, on March 3. It’s alleged that he then threw the veil to the floor and left the shopping centre. A Solihull Police spokesman said the woman had not been physically harmed but was left severely shaken by the incident.
Two elderly people from the Muslim community were assaulted on Friday-Saturday night in Amiens. The two attackers claimed to be from the far right, it was learned on Sunday from the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith in Picardy and the Somme prefecture.
The victims, two men aged 70 and 71, were attacked around five o’clock in the morning while they were on their way to the mosque in North Amiens for Fajr prayer, which takes place at dawn. After being violently abused by two men “with very short hair and claiming to belong to the extreme right” the two men were beaten up.
Hidden race hate crimes involving “home-grown neo-nazis” are on the increase in the North East, according to a leading academic.
Researchers said they have discovered a “growing attitude of intolerance and violence” in the region and expressed fears over the growing scale of the problem.
The warning comes as a 29-year-old was arrested a week ago over allegations he threatened an Oslo-style bomb attack on Muslims in South Shields. Just days earlier, anti-terror police arrested two men over the posting of alleged racist postings online.