“As a person who writes about women’s issues, I am constantly being told that Islam is the greatest threat to gender equality in this or any other country – mostly by white men, who always know best.”
Laurie Penny attacks the misuse of “feminist” rhetoric to pursue an anti-Muslim agenda.
Anthony Glees, with the assistance of the Sunday Express, has predictably exploited the jailing of Lee Rigby’s murderers to launch a characteristic scaremongering attack on educational institutions for supposedly encouraging violent extremism.
He told the Express: “The butchering of Lee Rigby ought now to serve as blowing the whistle on the wishy-washy thinking that goes on in schools, colleges and universities. There needs to be firm and clear academic leadership. All academics should make it clear to all students that extremists have no place in British society. If they don’t do it then the taxpayer funding of universities should be withdrawn.”
This year, it appears that Christmas hasn’t been banned because it offends Muslims – or at least I haven’t as yet come across that old familiar story or any of its many variants.
Still, the festive season wouldn’t be complete without some anti-Muslim story in the right-wing press. The Mail has run a report, which was then taken up by the Sunday Telegraph, that Muslim checkout staff at Marks & Spencer who do not wish to handle alcohol or pork have been told they can politely request that customers pay at another till.
You might wonder how prevalent this practice is at M&S – the Mail provides just one example of it happening. Other retailers – Asda, Morrisons and Tesco – appear to have adopted the more obvious solution that staff who object to handling certain products are not asked to work at checkouts.
Hate-fuelled crimes in which victims have been attacked because of their religion have spiralled by an alarming 57.6 per cent in the West Midlands over the past two years.
As the region prepares to celebrate Christmas – with its message of peace and goodwill – Home Office figures show that assaults incited by faith discrimination rose to 82 this year. Last year just 52 such cases were recorded by the police and the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Community campaigners warn that it could be just the tip of the iceberg because of a general perception that the authorities are either powerless, or unwilling, to act on complaints.
And the shocking figures do not include the murder of grandfather Mohammed Saleem, who was murdered as he made his way home from Friday prayers at a Birmingham mosque in April. Nor do they include this year’s nail bomb attacks on mosques in the Black Country because they occurred after the latest figures available from Government statisticians.
Mr Saleem, 82, from Small Heath was murdered by neo Nazi Pavlo Lapshyn, who had travelled from the Ukraine with the mission of starting a race war on Britain’s streets. The 25-year-old extremist was jailed for life for killing the peaceful pensioner.
Police are also currently investigating an alleged hate crime at St Andrew’s in which two Middlesbrough fans have been accused of taunting Blues supporters by ripping up a copy of the Koran.
Yesterday saw the jailing of three men for the firebombing of Grimsby Mosque following the murder of Lee Rigby last May. As we pointed out, the arson attack on the mosque was preceded by calls on the Facebook page of the English Defence League’s Grimsby division for the building to be burned down.
Earlier yesterday, in the immediate aftermath of the conviction and sentencing of Lee Rigby’s murderers, the Daily Telegraph saw fit to publish an inflammatory report, based on no evidence at all, that Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale “had links with the Lewisham Islamic Centre in south-east London, less than six miles from the Woolwich street where they murdered the soldier”.
The new owners of a Kidderminster retail park have dismissed “rumours” they would run the shops according to Islamic law.
Bosses of 90 North Real Estate Partners, which has taken over Crossley Retail Park, said claims the park would be subject to Sharia law were “inaccurate”.
The prison sentences handed down to Stuart Harness, Gavin Humphries and Daniel Cressey, who launched a firebomb attack on Grimsby Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre last May, are very welcome.
As the judge pointed out in sentencing them, the substantial prison terms handed out to the three arsonists – six years each for Harness and Humphries, three for Cressey – were intended to serve not just as an appropriate punishment for the perpetrators themselves but also as a deterrent to other violent racists who might be inclined to follow them.
Although there is no evidence of direct links between the three men and the English Defence League, it should be noted that their firebombing of Grimsby Mosque was preceded by an online campaign by local EDL supporters calling for an arson attack on the building.
Two former soldiers who firebombed a mosque following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby have each been jailed for six years.
Stuart Harness, 34, and Gavin Humphries, 37, made petrol bombs and threw them at the Grimsby Islamic Cultural Centre while being filmed on CCTV cameras they thought were turned off. They were jailed today by Judge Mark Bury at Hull Crown Court after admitting arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered at an earlier hearing.
Judge Bury told the pair: “This was a crime of violence where a particular religious group was deliberately targeted in an act of retribution.” He said: “This kind of attack cannot be tolerated. A severe sentence is required to punish but, more importantly, to deter.”
He jailed a third defendant, Daniel Cressey – who denied aiding and abetting the other two but was found guilty by a jury – also for three years.
The Daily Telegraph has a report headlined “Lee Rigby killers had links to Lewisham mosque that ‘attracts radicals'”, which cites unnamed “Whitehall sources” as claiming that Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale “had links with the Lewisham Islamic Centre in south-east London, less than six miles from the Woolwich street where they murdered the soldier”.
The unnamed source is quoted as saying of the centre: “It does attract a radical crowd and radical speakers and has its fair share of converts. From that perspective it is significant. Adebolajo and Adebowale did go there, and anywhere that attracts extremists is of interest.”
This was the headline to a report in yesterday’s Times.
It has since been amended to “Islamist threat to Christians, says Charles”.
In Australia, however, the Murdoch press has yet to catch up.