Category Archives: UK

EDL activist racially abused Muslim shopkeeper who offered help

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Craig Dumper Owens EDL

A racist yob shouted vile obscenities at a pizza shop owner after the businessman offered him a tissue to wipe his blooded nose.

Craig Anthony Owens was outside Fatso’s Pizzeria, in York Road, Hartlepool, and was drunk. Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court heard the 29-year-old had a cut to his nose which was bleeding. The owner of the take-away, Maboob Hussain, came out of the shop and offered the defendant some tissue paper to stem the bleeding. But it was then that the tirade of abuse started.

Prosecuting, Joanne Hesse, said: “The incident occurred about 9.30pm and the defendant was drunk at the time. The defendant had a cut to his nose which was bleeding and the shop owner came outside and offered him some tissue paper to help clean up the blood. The defendant became abusive and aggressive towards Mr Hussain.

“He was swearing and saying things like ‘why would I take that off you, you Muslim, you’re not British’. Mr Hussain asked him to move away from the shop, to which Owens shouted ‘why should I leave I’m British’. There were other members of public present too.”

The court heard how Owens also shouted derogatory terms about Allah.

Mrs Hesse also read an extract from Mr Hussain’s victim impact statement, which said: “I’ve worked in Hartlepool for many years and this is the worst abuse I’ve had.”

The defendant, of Bruce Crescent, in the West View area of Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour which was racially aggravated on September 14.

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Police probe racist graffiti in Livingston

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Livingston anti-Muslim graffitiPolice are hunting a man who spray-painted anti-Muslim graffiti at several locations in Livingston. The racist slogans were sprayed in the Dedridge area of the West Lothian town from 02:00 on Saturday morning.

Police Scotland said the suspect may have been wearing yellow “marigold” gloves. He was described as white and wearing a black baseball cap with ear flaps, and a red, white and blue striped football scarf wrapped round his face. He had a dark coloured zip-up jacket, jeans and black boots. He is thought to have used a large white tin of red spray paint.

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Britain First march through Rotherham

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First Rotherham October 2014Hundreds of Britain First supporters have marched through the centre of Rotherham.

Two arrests were made during the march after several supporters and bystanders had strong exchanges of words along the route.

The demonstration was the group’s second visit to the town within a month following the publication of Professor Alexis Jay’s report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, which revealed 1,400 children had been abused by mainly Pakistani men over 16 years.

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The Moazzam Begg case shows how Muslims are criminalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Letter in the Guardian

On 1 October, Moazzam Begg was released after seven months in detention because of allegations arising from his time in Syria which included charitable and investigative work (Report, 2 October). Days before a much-delayed court hearing, all charges have been dropped. Begg has been a role-model and mentor to many, young and not so young, and this new period of detention has caused great distress among those who look to him for inspiration. The manner in which he has been targeted and detained – with, ultimately, no evidence being brought against him in an open court – will confirm the view that this is a concerted campaign of intimidation, designed to scare Muslim communities away from active engagement in public life. While we celebrate his release, we remain concerned that he has spent another lengthy period in detention because of laws that are fundamentally unjust.

We write to express our extreme concern about the use of allegations of terrorism and the arrest and detention of charity workers to slur and curtail the work of Muslim charities and organisations such as Cage, Interpal, Ummah Trust and HHUGS, including through closing bank accounts, lengthy investigations into charitable status and, at the extreme, the arrest and detention of high-profile campaigners.

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UK soldier Ryan McGee admits making nail bomb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ryan McGee EDLA serving soldier from Manchester charged with a terror offence has admitted making a nail bomb.

Ryan McGee, 19, was serving with the 5th Battalion The Rifles when he was detained in December at an Army base in Germany after the discovery of a suspicious device at a Salford house.

He also admitted a separate charge at the Old Bailey of possessing a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook on bombs.

McGee, of Mellor Street, Eccles, was bailed ahead of sentencing in November.

The Anarchist Cookbook includes instructions for the manufacture of explosives as well as for home-manufacturing of drugs.

McGee admitted possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terror and making explosives contrary to the Explosives Substance Act by making an Improvised Explosive Device.

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Roger Godsiff MP, Jack Dromey MP, trade unions & Salma Yaqoob sign anti-EDL statement

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Birmingham UAF leaflet October 2014

WE ARE BIRMINGHAM – DON’T LET THE EDL DIVIDE OUR COMMUNITIES

Saturday 11 October 2014, 11am
Victoria Square, Birmingham

Statement
We, the undersigned, condemn the decision by the English Defence League (EDL) to come to Birmingham on Saturday 11th October. We believe it is a cynical attempt by the EDL to use the appalling crime of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham to further its own selfish ends. We support and seek justice for all victims of sexual exploitation regardless of their social or ethnic background. We condemn and seek prosecution of all those responsible for these crimes irrespective of their ethnicity or creed.

We reject the attempt by the EDL to whip up racism and division in our city by trying to turn communities against each other without a care for the damage it leaves in its wake.

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Mosque leader gives hate crime warning after Archway attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Mohammed KozbarA leader of Islington’s Muslim community has voiced his fear that the attempted murder of an Archway shopkeeper may have been fuelled by Islamophobia following the atrocities committed by extremist group Isil.

Mohammed Kozbar, who is the manager of Finsbury Park Mosque in St Thomas’s Road, met police last week after a man was hospitalised by an attack in Holloway Road on Tuesday night of last week.

Describing the incident as “worrying”, Mr Kozbar said there had been a heightening of Islamophobic feeling in response to executions by the extremist group based in Iraq and Syria – while the town hall’s crime chief said there had been an upswing in hate crime in the borough.

Mr Kozbar said: “This was a very serious attack. It shows a similar approach to the kind of thing that Isil and others are trying to do, and it is worrying for the community. The worry is that the attacker might not be acting alone and this needs to be looked at before someone else gets hurt.”

Finsbury Park Mosque has a chequered history with extremism as a former home to radical cleric Abu Hamza, but is now largely considered a hub of the community. The mosque was one of several Muslim organisations to issue a statement condemning Isil in its recent acts of beheading hostages, including British aid worker David Haines last month.

Mr Kozbar said: “We as a mosque completely condemn what Isil are doing, as do 99.9 per cent of Muslims. But you can find the small minority that have been brainwashed or misguided by certain people. After this attack on this shop the community will feel very worried.”

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Anti-Muslim hate crime soars in London, according to new police figures

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim hate crime in London has shot up by almost 65% in twelve months, with spikes in violence linked not to Islamic State beheadings, but to incidents closer to home like the Rotherham grooming scandal.

Metropolitan Police figures show that incidents of hate crime rose from 344 to 570 in the last year, and women are key targets because of their identifiable Islamic dress. Fiyaz Mughal, director of the Islamophobia monitoring group Tell MAMA, said that he had been expecting an increase of between 30-50%, and had not predicted such a dramatic rise.

“It’s certainly linked to current events, but the severity of the reports we get vary, depending on what is happening in the news,” he told HuffPost UK. “When there’s an IS beheading, or there’s a terror threat made against the UK, you’ll find a bombardment of online abuse and threats. And it will be a discernible spike, increasing for a short period and then dying down.”

It was national scandals, like the grooming of young girls in Rotherham by groups of Pakistani men, or the alleged “Trojan horse” plot by hardline Muslims in Birmingham to “take over” some of the city’s state schools, that had the most impact on the figures, Mughal said.

“The most significant rise in numbers came after the killing of Lee Rigby last year, that was extremely prolonged. But it did die down and life became more peaceful. It was just a dull background noise until the ‘Trojan Horse’ coverage. That led to a longer period of threat, and more violence, with direct threats and attacks against mosques. The worst this year has been linked to Rotherham, and mosques in particular have experience many threats.”

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Racist thugs attack Muslim boy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BasildonA 12-year-old Muslim boy was left with cuts and bruises after he was attacked by two racist men outside his home.

Ubaid Khan, was playing football in Somercotes, Laindon, when he was set upon by the two thugs last Monday evening. The assault happened in the same week three Asian men were attacked as they walked to church, in Whitmore Way.

Brother Sarfraz Sarwar of the Basildon Islamic Centre, said members of the Muslim community are now being advised not to go out alone after dark, in the wake of the attacks.

Ubaid’s dad, Khubaid Khan, 40, said: “My son was attacked by two men, who gave him a good smacking. He was playing football when the ball went out of the game and he ran to get it. These two men started shouting abuse at him, then they attacked him, leaving him with a cut lip and swollen face. For two men to do this to a young boy is unthinkable. He has been left very shaken and now he does not want to play out anymore.”

The assault comes after three Asian men were physically attacked in Basildon while on their way to a church celebration late on Saturday night. The men – all Christians – were confronted by a yob asking if they belonged to Isis or a terrorist group, before being slapped and punched.

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Moazzam Begg released after terror charges dropped

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg has walked free from Belmarsh prison after seven terrorism-related charges against him were dropped.

The charges – which were connected to the conflict in Syria – were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service after “new material” emerged.

Leaving prison, Mr Begg, 46, said he had “wanted his day in court” and claimed his detention was “unlawful”.

The Muslim Council of Britain called for an “urgent investigation”.

Mr Begg, from Birmingham, was arrested with three others in February.

Speaking from outside prison after his release, he said: “Not once but twice in my case this government has been involved either in directly detaining me or indirectly detaining me and on both occasions it’s been unlawful.”

Mr Begg also said handling of his case “shows a knee jerk reaction”, adding: “It shows little has changed since the beginning of the early days in the war on terror. There isn’t an appetite, there isn’t a desire to try to really understand what’s taking place.”

BBC News, 1 October 2014

Update:  See “Moazzam Begg was in contact with MI5 about his Syria visits, papers show”, Guardian, 2 October 2014