Category Archives: Scotland

Asylum seeker and baby sexually attacked in Glasgow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Algerian woman and her one-year-old baby were sexually assaulted in broad daylight in Glasgow in a racially aggravated attack.

The 33-year-old woman was pushing her son in his pram through the Yoker area of the city when a group of young men threw stones at them and kicked the woman. One man then exposed himself, indecently assaulted the woman and attempted to perform an indecent act on the one-year-old boy.

The woman, who cannot be identified, had her headscarf torn from her head. She escaped by snatching her son from his pram and running away, leaving behind the pram, headscarf and a baby’s bottle.

She took her son to hospital and he was released later that day. Her son was assaulted but she rescued him before the man could commit any sexual act.

Police are appealing for the young men involved to come forward and identify the man who committed the assault. The suspect is described as a white male, aged 20 to 25, with very short hair, who is tall and thin. He was wearing white and blue track suit trousers.

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18 racist crimes every 24 hours in Scotland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shocking figures have revealed a rising tide of racist crime in Scotland. Police recorded 6439 racist crimes last year – that’s 18 a day. The figure was up sharply from 5732 the previous year and 4556 in 2004. More than half of all the victims were of Asian origin. Offences ranged from “racially aggravated conduct” – usually verbal abuse – to vandalism, fire-raising and serious assault. The figures were set out in the first Scotland-wide report into racist crime, published by the Executive.

Bashir Mann, president of the Muslim Council in Scotland, said: “I think racism is on the increase in this country and in the UK as a whole. There has been a rise in Islamophobia and this has been aggravated by the anti-terrorism legislation introduced by the Government.”

Daily Record, 28 March 2007

Attack on Central Scotland Islamic Centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thugs threw bottles of Buckfast through the windows of a mosque while worshippers prayed inside, it emerged yesterday. Five panes were broken at the Central Scotland Islamic Centre in Stirling at about 8.30pm on Sunday. The imam, Mohammed Arif, said: “Those who were praying were frightened and alarmed at what happened.” About 30 people were inside the mosque at the time. Three men in their early 20s were seen running away.

Daily Record, 13 March 2007

In 1993 the center was targeted in an arson attack.

‘Crusader’ Cameron puts his foot in it with Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David_CameronHapless Tory leader David Cameron put his upper-class foot in it with Britain’s Muslim population on Sunday when he declared a new “crusade for fairness.”

Mr Cameron attacked “clunking” government attempts to promote community cohesion, such as urging Muslim parents to spy on their children or encouraging people to fly the union flag on their lawns. “It’s no use behaving like the proverbial English tourist abroad, shouting ever more loudly at the hapless foreigner who doesn’t understand what is being said. “We can’t bully people into feeling British – we have to inspire them,” he said.

He pledged to tackle the oppression of Muslim women who are prevented from going out to work or attending university. But, by invoking the language of the bloody Medieval crusades, he risked antagonising the very community that he was seeking to win over.

Muslim Association of Britain spokesman Osama Saeed said that Mr Cameron’s use of the word “crusade” was “extraordinarily sloppy” and warned that it risked undermining his central message.

“We do see prominent leaders in the West use this word. George Bush launched his ‘crusade’ against terrorism a few years ago and I do not understand their fixation with it. It is not a nice word and nice things do not happen on the back of crusades,” said Mr Saeed. “Whatever David Cameron’s message was today – and I agree with much of it – it will be lost amid words like this. It devalues his message.”

Morning Star, 29 January 2007

For further comments by Osama Saeed see Rolled Up Trousers, 29 January 2007

Police need to stop their leaks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed comments on the media furore over the reported request by a Muslim WPC that she should not be forced to shake the hands of male colleagues, including Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair:

“Despite her superiors being informed well in advance of the issue, you would think given the media coverage that she was standing in a row of people having their hands shaken and when her turn with Sir Ian came she whipped her hand back, put her thumb on her nose and wiggled her fingers about while blowing a raspberry.”

Osama points out that this is just the latest in a series of leaks from within the police force that have been used by the right-wing press to stoke up Islamophobia.

Rolled Up Trousers, 23 January 2007

Readers may like to compare Osama’s reasoned and informed analysis with the ignorant dogmatism of Brett Lock’s recent post at Harry’s Place.

Complain about Richard Littlejohn’s Islamophobia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Osama Saeed draws attention to an Arab Media Watch alert urging supporters to complain to the Daily Mail about a Richard Littlejohn column in which he wrote: “… here is a simple cut-out-and-keep guide to the two dominant branches of Islam: Sunnis are the peace-loving, Saudi-backed wing who brought you Al Qaeda. Shias are the peace-loving, Iranian-backed strain behind Hamas and Hezbollah. I hope that helps.”

See Rolled Up Trousers and Arab Media Watch.

Parish at war over ‘anti-Islam’ booklet written by local doctor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The community of the most northerly parish on the Shetland mainland has been left bitterly divided over the suspension of a local doctor who distributed a controversial religious pamphlet to his patients which critics claim is highly offensive to Muslims.

Dr Mick Russon, who has been an associate GP at the Hillswick health centre since 2004, was suspended by the Shetland Health Board after he sent out a 46-page booklet, entitled Proclamation, to more than 200 people in the parish of Northmavine. The health authority took the disciplinary action after receiving a complaint from a member of the public. His case has now been referred to the General Medical Council.

The pamphlet makes no direct reference to the Islamic faith, but critics claim that Dr Russon’s repeated references to a “Babylonian Moon God” and Satan are a thinly veiled attack on Allah and that he is asserting that Islam is Satanic.

Dr Russon states in the pamphlet: “Satan is the Babylonian Moon God; a cult that has become probably the most oppressive of women throughout time. There are probably more people worshipping the Moon God at this moment in time than at any previous time in the history of mankind; it is probable that most who follow him do so out of fear and not reverence.

“As each successive world empire has reached its height, it is largely the conflict between politics and finance that brings it down. We have seen this only too well in recent days, when the buildings that represented the centre of global trade were destroyed by those who carry the symbols of the Babylonian Moon God. I of course refer to the events now universally referred to as 9/11.”

The Scotsman, 5 January 2007

Increase in race hate crimes casts doubt on ‘One Scotland’ campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racist crime is growing across Scotland despite a multi-million-pound Executive campaign to tackle the problem, new figures obtained by The Scotsman have revealed. Some 3,387 racially-aggravated crimes and offences were recorded by the country’s eight police forces between April and December this year, compared with 3,192 during the same period last year – a rise of 6 per cent.

The increase has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Executive’s “One Scotland” campaign launched in 2002 to tackle racism in the country’s streets and classrooms, and sparked calls for Jack McConnell, the First Minister, to put the issue on a platform equal in size to the one given to sectarianism in recent months.

Ethnic community leaders are also accusing politicians of failing to wake up to the “elephant in the room” that is growing Islamophobia, saying thousands of Muslims and members of other minority racial groups are continuing to be victimised following the 11 September and 7 July terrorism attacks.

In 2005-6, 4,294 racially-aggravated crimes were recorded by police – 358 every month and more than ten times the level recorded in 2001-2. Since then, the number has continued to rise according to new figures obtained by The Scotsman, with reported verbal and physical attacks rising to 376 per month.

The biggest increase has been seen in the Lothian and Borders police area, where police recorded 970 assaults and other racially-aggravated offences between April and December this year – up 26 per cent on the 768 crimes recorded for the same period in 2005. Grampian also saw a big rise in reported race hate crimes, from 271 to 312, up 15 per cent.

Chief Inspector Doug Forsyth, who is in charge of diversity issues at Lothian and Borders Police, claimed a greater willingness to report incidents lay behind the increase, rather than more crime.

“If people don’t want to go to the police station, they can report crimes with other agencies such as the council and health service who will pass the details to us. I think the rise is mostly due to greater confidence within ethnic communities that the police will take these things seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”

But Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, disagreed, saying Asians were increasingly being victimised on religious grounds. “The police have not got to grips with the scale of the problem, which is vast. Incidents are not being reported because there isn’t a good link-up between communities and the police.

“People are more likely to be called a terrorist than a Paki. It’s more likely to be religiously-based abuse, particularly directed against Islam. The One Scotland campaign is fine but it isn’t really dealing with the changing face of racism. There’s an elephant in the room at the moment, attacks directed at Islam, which no-one is addressing. One Scotland isn’t hitting those buttons.”

The Scotsman, 26 December 2006

‘Muslim dinners for church kids’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Pupils at a Church of England school are only able to eat Muslim meals because of a council ruling. The only meat on the menu at the primary school is halal – where animals are controversially bled to death. Children have been eating the meat for up to SEVENTEEN years at FOUR schools in Reading, Berkshire, without parents’ knowledge, the council admitted yesterday. The fact emerged after pupils were given letters from canteen managers to take home. Islamic law insists on halal meat, produced by slashing an animal’s neck with a single cut. Animals are not stunned beforehand. Parents are furious at the revelation.”

The Sun, 18 December 2006

Update: See also Christian Today, 19 December 2006

Stand by for the BNP to pick up on this story as an example of the so-called “Islamicisation of Britain”.

For Osama Saeed’s comments, see Rolled Up Trousers, 18 December 2006