Last week at Newcastle Crown Court nine EDL supporters were sentenced for their part in an attack on an Irish centre where a Socialist Workers Party meeting had been scheduled to take place. After the SWP called off the meeting for fear of violence, the EDL attacked staff at the centre instead. Six of the gang were given prison sentences and three others received suspended jail terms.
Police have now released CCTV pictures of a further six suspects who are wanted in connection with the attack.
Two men are due to go on trial today after denying trying to burn down a £1.6 million mosque.
Simon Beech, aged 23, and Gareth Foster, aged 28, are accused of starting a fire at the new mosque, in Regent Road, Hanley, on December 3 last year.
LoonWatch draws our attention to a study by Marquette University Assistant Professor Risa A. Brooks, “Muslim ‘homegrown’ terrorism in the United States: How serious is the threat?”, which appears in the current issue of the journal International Security.
Last week the St. Louis chapter of Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! for America held a meeting at City Hall in Crestwood, Missouri, under the title “What America Must Learn from the Fort Hood Massacre”, which featured the screening of a DVD lecture by the executive director of ACT!, Guy Rodgers.
Only about a dozen people attended this particular event. However, a report by Tim Townsend at STLtoday provides a revealing account of the poisonous anti-Muslim propaganda ACT! puts out, and how it impacts on its audience:
A diverse array of UC Irvine students were prepared to protest against a controversial pastor after it was announced he might speak on campus.
Students gathered in front of Langson Library, some sitting on blankets, facing the area covered in caution tape where the Rev. Terry Jones intended to speak. However, Jones was told not to come on campus after UCI police received intelligence informing them of suspicious activity associated with the visit that aroused safety concerns.
The Daily Mail has a report on the police figures for “honour-based” violence released by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation.
Some way down the article, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson is quoted as saying: “Honour-based violence cuts across all cultures, nationalities and faith groups – it is a worldwide problem.”
A French minister said there was no such thing as moderate Islam, calling recent election successes by Islamic parties in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia “worrying” in an interview published Saturday.
Jeannette Bougrab, a junior minister with responsibility for youth, told Le Parisien newspaper that legislation based on Islamic sharia law “inevitably” imposed restrictions on rights and freedoms.
The English Defence League’s North East regional organiser Alan Spence has been jailed for his part in an attack on a socialist meeting, along with several of his racist and fascist cohorts.
Spence is a leading figure in the EDL – and a key link between the EDL and the British National Party: he stood as a parliamentary candidate for the BNP at the general election.
He was sent down for seven months today, following the attack at the Tyneside Irish Centre, where the Socialist Workers Party was holding a meeting last September.
A Muslim woman was spat at and abused by a gang of six teenagers in Telford who pulled off her religious headdress in a racially motivated attack.
The gang, who were all male, surrounded the 52-year-old woman and started aggressively pushing and shoving her as she walked along a footpath by the skate park near William Reynolds Infant School in Woodside on Tuesday. Chris Ammonds, spokesman for Telford police, said the woman was abused between 6pm and 6.20pm.
Muslims are being urged to report hate crimes under a special disaster plan to deal with the fallout from terrorist attacks. Under the Muslim Emergency Management Plan, backed by the state and federal governments, Victorians will be given advice on how to react to anti-Muslim incidents, even if they are considered minor.
Muslim victims of abuse are encouraged to save evidence, take photos and report any incident to police and their local mosque or Islamic organisation. And in another initiative, Victoria Police is introducing new strategy to deal with violence and threats motivated by prejudice.
It comes amid growing concern over inter-racial tensions in Melbourne’s suburbs and against the backdrop of fears of further terrorist attacks that could strain relations further.
Police are being asked to develop databases on crime motivated by race or religion, so that offenders can be prosecuted. The “prejudice-motivated crime strategy” focuses on crimes linked to race, religion, sex, age, disability or homelessness.
Muslims told the Herald Sun they faced increasing abuse on the streets because of their religion. “A lot of women get yelled at and told ‘Go home’, or ‘There’s no place for you here’, especially women wearing the burqa,” a Muslim source said. “It happens in shopping centres, at the park or just when you are walking along in the street.”