‘Disgust’ in Rotherham over anti-Islam comments on police Facebook page

Posted on by Bob Pitt

South Yorkshire Police

South Yorkshire Police has come under-fire over a string of offensive comments and threats concerning the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal left on its official social media page. More than 1,000 comments, some of which include anti-Islam and racist abuse, were posted on the force’s Facebook page in response to a message thanking members of the public for a ‘peaceful’ Muslim Youth demonstration.

The event, which took place outside the town hall on Saturday, came one week after an English Defence League march saw over 1,000 supporters of the far-right group take to the streets to protest against the findings of the Jay report, which news that at least 1,400 children were abused by gangs of men predominantly of Pakistani origin in Rotherham between 1997 to 2013.

Senior officers have come in for further criticism for failing to take down the messages, some of which threatened violence to fellow Facebook users and appeared to lay the blame for the scandal on the Muslim community. The Yorkshire Post understands more than one member of the public has reported the comments to SYP, but they remained on the site yesterday.

One Rotherham resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Yorkshire Post: “The messages which appeared are hateful and racist. It’s disgusting, there are all sorts of things on there, including threats and it is a public page the police use to get information out there. I complained about it on Saturday and the officer told me they’d pass it on to a supervisor, but still nothing has been done.”

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Man, 34, arrested over arson attack on minibus at Manchester mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man has been arrested over an arson attack outside a mosque in Manchester.

A minibus, which was used to ferry elderly worshippers, was torched outside the Manchester Islamic Centre on Regent Street, Newton Heath, earlier this month. Police were called to the building, off Droylsden Road, shortly before 11.30pm on Friday, September 5, and found two CCTV cameras had been ripped from the front of the building.

No one was present at the building, which contains a mosque and educational facilities, at the time and officers intended to return the next day to inform them of the theft. However, around two hours later at 1.20am on Saturday morning, they were called again after a minibus, parked in a secure yard at the back of the centre, was found ablaze. Investigators later found the bus, which cost around £6,000, had been deliberately torched.

Police have now arrested a 34-year-old man from Eccles, Salford, on suspicion of theft and arson.

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Man charged with spitting at Muslim woman as she walked through Bristol’s Cabot Circus

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hasina KhanPolice have charged a 26-year-old man with spitting at a Muslim woman as she walked through Cabot Circus.

As previously reported, Hasina Khan was on her way to work when she was allegedly attacked at about 9am on July 21. Ms Khan said she had was spat on and verbally abused by a stranger who approached her as she walked through the shopping centre.

Avon and Somerset police arrested Jack Hughes, of Upton Road, Southville. He has now been charged with racially- or religiously-aggravated common assault and is due to appear before Bristol magistrates on November 13.

Any witnesses to the incident who have not yet come forward should call PC Hannah King on 101, quoting crime reference number 74214/14.

Bristol Post, 22 September 2014

Petition launched over claims Camden School For Girls told student not to wear a veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Camden School for GirlsMore than 300 people have signed an online petition calling for Camden School for Girls to “stop the Islamaphobia” after a student was allegedly banned from wearing a veil.

The anonymous petition says a 16-year-old GCSE pupil had been offered a place in the Sandall Road school’s sought-after sixth-form on condition she did not wear the niqab. The niqab is a cloth veil covers part of the face, only revealing the eyes, that is worn by some Muslim women.

In a statement, Camden School for Girls said: “We have an appearance policy and students at the school may wear what they wish subject to any requirement in the interests of teaching and learning, health and safety. Inappropriate dress which offends public decency or which does not allow teacher-student interactions will be challenged.”

But the Change.Org online petition said: “The student only started to wear the niqab this year, and even sat her GCSE exams wearing the veil. But this time, when the student returned to the school, wearing the niqab, a teacher claimed that she could not be allowed to study at the school.”

The petition said the student was told “communication”, “health and safety” and “security” were the main reasons for the decision.

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Islamophobia comes to Putson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hereford Islamic Society centre

Although the Muslim population of Hereford is not large – according to the 2011 census there are only 360 Muslims in the whole of Herefordshire, well outnumbered by the county’s 560 Buddhists – the lack of a permanent centre for this small Muslim community has been a problem, as it has outgrown the rented premises it currently uses.

Unfortunately, the proposal to establish what would be Herefordshire’s first Muslim place of worship has faced extreme hostility from a section of the non-Muslim majority population. In 2012 the Hereford Masjid Fundraising Campaign’s Facebook page had to be taken down after being subjected to repeated abuse and threats from anti-Muslim bigots.

Despite this setback the necessary funds were raised and Hereford Islamic Society was able to purchase a vacant building on Holme Lacy Road in Putson with the aim of converting it into a small centre for the local Muslim community. In July the Hereford Times reported that a change of use planning application for the premises had been submitted. Again, this proposal was not universally well received.

Last week BBC News reported that some local residents had organised a public meeting to oppose the plan. One of them, Tracy Rock, was quoted as saying: “It’ll be overcrowded, it’s just not a suitable area for a day centre to be in.” Another opponent, Don Allan, said: “They’re going to be praying there from seven in the morning until 11 at night and we don’t really want that. It’s nothing to do with race or anything like that, just the volume of traffic.”

This objection ignores the very small numbers who would be attending the centre – a peak of around 50 at lunchtime on Friday, according to the applicants, with possibly 12 of them coming by car. There is a Tesco Express just across the road from the proposed centre which is open from 6am to 11pm every day of the week and undoubtedly generates far more traffic than the small-scale activities of Hereford Islamic Society ever could.

But let us concede that Mr Allan’s objections are not motivated by “race or anything like that”. The same cannot be said of Tracy Rock, the other opponent of the centre quoted by BBC News, who appears to have played a leading role in launching a campaign against the plan after it was announced back in July. When a Facebook friend declared “We dnt nd a bloody mosc were English not bloody islamic there takin ova slowly” and suggested stealing “the fuckin shoes they leave outside”, Rock’s reaction was to laugh and agree.

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Ministers urged to work with Muslim ‘extremist’ groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ministers have been urged to enlist the help of several controversial Muslim groups to stem the flow of British jihadists to Iraq and Syria.

Calls are growing for Whitehall to restore ties in particular with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), one of the country’s largest Islamic organisations. The group, which once enjoyed a close relationship with the government, has been ostracised since 2009 when one of its officials signed a declaration supporting Hamas and calling on Muslims to destroy “foreign warships” preventing arms smuggling into Gaza.

Robert Lambert, a former head of the Metropolitan police Muslim contact unit who is now a lecturer in terrorism studies at the University of St Andrews, said that the MCB and other Muslim groups could be valuable partners in the struggle against home-grown jihad.

“Throughout the UK, but predominantly in parts of Greater London, there are Sunni Muslim organisations, groups and individuals with either good track records of challenging al-Qaeda or Isis-type radicalisation and recruitment or clear potential to do so,” he said.

“In many instances the government considers these groups to be unsuitable partners because, in the government’s view, they are extremist and do not subscribe to British values.”

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Anti-Muslim protest: Hundreds rally at proposed Sunshine Coast mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Maroochydore anti-mosque protestHundreds of people protesting against a mosque on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast have come to verbal blows with the building’s supporters, with about 20 police separating the emotionally charged groups.

More than 200 anti-Muslim demonstrators shook placards stating: “Islam is plotting our destruction” and “Australia we have a problem” at the site of the planned mosque, on Church Street in Maroochydore. The protesters said they were concerned the site could become a hub of radicalisation, threatening the local community.

“I’m not for it anywhere in Australia,” a man who called himself Aussie Ron told the ABC.

One Nation state president Jim Savage, who said he had two adopted Asian daughters, said he was not a religious bigot nor a racist.

“This is nothing to do with race,” he said. “What Muslim preaches violates the laws of my country. It is an ideological, political organisation wrapped up in a very thin skin of religion. I ask anybody to name any Western country in the world where there had been a large influx of Muslims where they have seen an improvement and have not seen social issues.”

Pakistani-born Justin Albert warned of experiences of oppression in his native country. “Chopping their heads, it is their Jihad,” he said. “I know their deeds. No more mosque in Australia. One day you will see they will kill you.”

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Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 15‑21 September

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 15-21 September 2014

We are the ones being terrorised, Australian Muslims say

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australia anti-Muslim backlash

A car has been damaged and daubed with offensive comments, threatening letters have been sent and women have been abused in the street.

A backlash of hate crimes against the Muslim community after the police raids last week has also sparked a rash of social media comments such as “this is how they should deal with them”, “behead them all”, “give them a taste of their own medicine for a change” and “we just need to blow up parramatta n bankstown”.

One of the founders of the Australian Arabic Council and human rights activist Joseph Wakim said “everyone should remember that no faith tells you to harm innocent people”.

“It is not open season on Muslims,” Mr Wakim said. “It is not OK to go Muslim-bashing. The raids were about stopping people feared to be terrorists, yet it is the Muslim people who are being terrorised.” Mr Wakim, a former Victorian multicultural affairs commissioner, has reminded Australians to learn from history and not to make the same mistakes, in particular by treating one group as “collectively guilty”.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has been felt around the country and people are reporting graffiti on mosques and attacks on homes. Threatening letters have been sent to businesses, bookshops and religious leaders with handwritten messages such as “we will fight you … terror for terror … blood for blood and … bomb for bomb”.

NSW Police Superintendent Mark Walton said officers would not “stand guard” outside mosques that received bomb threats, purportedly from the Australian Defence League. He said that, other than the letter from the league, there were no credible threats to security being investigated during Operation Hammerhead, a NSW operation to increase police visibility that was launched after terrorism raids on Thursday.

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Gove’s former Spad reveals thinking behind ‘Trojan Horse’ witch-hunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Birmingham Mail jihadist plotFor anyone interested in the Islamophobic mind-set that inspired the “Trojan Horse” hysteria about an “Islamist takeover” of Birmingham schools, today’s Sunday Times is worth reading. It features a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Islamist rant by one Jamie Martin, who worked as a special advisor to former education secretary Michael Gove during the period of the Birmingham witch-hunt.

Martin hails Gove’s “rare moral courage” in responding to the alleged Islamist threat there: “we acted to remove the individuals responsible from any involvement in education. We then moved to make sure Ofsted inspections took place without notice, and strengthened our powers to rapidly close schools that did not promote British values”. But then, it’s hardly surprising that Martin should take such a positive view of Gove’s actions – because, as he boastfully reveals, “it was my job to co-ordinate this response”.

Claiming that the UK is under threat from “an aggressive, anti-western belief system”, Martin enthusiastically endorses Tony Blair’s bonkers assertion that “the same ideology that drove the ‘Trojan Horse’ takeover of Birmingham’s schools, leaving children at risk of radicalisation, motivates Islamic extremists from Spain to Syria”. This ideology, Martin declares, “is Islamism, which rejects every tenet of our pluralistic society and will not compromise on its belief in a totalitarian theocracy”.

According to Martin, there has been an abject failure to confront this totalitarian Islamist threat: “Our governing elite, hamstrung by political correctness, has failed to understand or tackle it. Our Muslim communities have failed to confront it. Britain has been left as a weak link in the fight against global terror.”

As is usual in such diatribes, Martin makes no attempt to define Islamism, still less to analyse the very different tendencies that can be grouped under this broad heading. Organisations ranging from terrorists like ISIS to mass reformist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood – along with non-political groupings who adopt culturally conservative interpretations of Islam – are depicted as manifestations of a single ideology which aims at the imposition of a “totalitarian theocracy”.

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