The Cleveland office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio chapter (CAIR-Cleveland) today released a video highlighting anti-Muslim hate preached at a recent Tea Party event at a school in that state, which included claims that American Muslims “will kill your children” and that “we are in war with Islam.”
Yearly Archives: 2012
Man who threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque is jailed
A man threatened to blow up a Glasgow mosque and claimed he had a bomb in his backpack. Fraser Rae was jailed for the incident at the city’s Central Mosque on Thursday.
The 28-year-old launched a racist tirade when he entered the site in the south side of Glasgow and told followers at the mosque that he had a bomb inside his backpack and they should run away. Rae, of Johnstone in Renfrewshire, also shouted that he had a gun and threatened to shoot those near him.
Atheist in court for ripping up Qur’an and abusing Muslims
An atheist shocked Muslim volunteers at a stall promoting Islam when he ripped out pages from the Koran. Peter James Crawford (52) then threw the holy book onto the ground and told them: “Your religion is a load of b******s.”
He is on trial at Leicester Crown Court accused of causing religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, by demonstrating hostility based on membership of a particular religious group, Islam. He denies the charge.
The incident happened at the Islamic Information Centre’s stall, near the Clock Tower in Leicester city centre, on a busy Saturday afternoon, on May 12.
Indiana man says he set fire at Ohio mosque to get payback for US soldiers killed overseas
A former Marine from Indiana admitted Wednesday that he broke into a mosque in Ohio and set fire to a prayer rug because he wanted revenge for the killings of American troops overseas.
Randy Linn pleaded guilty to hate crime charges, saying he’d become enraged after seeing images of wounded soldiers in the news. “Every day you turn on the TV, you see Muslims trying to kill Americans,” said Linn, a truck driver from St. Joe. When asked by a federal judge whether he thought all Muslims are terrorists, he answered: “I’d say most of them are.”
Row over Brighton and Hove council prayers
It was introduced as a way to promote harmony, respect and be inclusive of all religions, but councillors have claimed they were “concerned and baffled” when Islamic prayers were sung before a town hall meeting.
All elected members on Brighton and Hove City Council are invited to bow their heads before meetings of the full council. Usually prayers are led by a Church of England priest. For the first time, mayor Bill Randall has invited religious leaders from other faiths to lead the moment of reflection.
After an imam delivered a prayer in Arabic in the council chamber last week, independent councillor Christina Summers said she felt it was “exclusive”. Last night some questioned her commitment to diversity in the city, which according to most recent census figures has 6,095 Muslims.
Florida: woman with sword arrested at Muslim school and mosque
ORLANDO — A woman is under arrest after carrying a sword onto a school campus.
Just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, Orange County deputies responded to the Leaders Preparatory School on North Goldenrod Road, which includes a mosque, school and day care. They found 47-year-old Dominique Eloi walking out of the mosque carrying the weapon.
A school employee said Eloi exited her vehicle with the 2-foot sword and did not respond to the employee when asked what business she had on the property. Leaders Preparatory was immediately placed on lockdown as the employee called deputies.
Eloi was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds, disrupting a school function and aggravated assault with a weapon.
Central Florida News, 19 December 2012
See also “CAIR-FL urges stepped-up security after woman with sword arrested at mosque, Muslim school”, CAIR press release, 19 December 2012
Threatening graffiti on Mallorca mosque
The Balearic Islands daily Última Hora reports that a mosque in the Mallorca town of Sa Pobla has been sprayed with graffiti featuring a picture of an explosive device accompanied by the word “bomb”. The entrance to the building has also been marked with an “X” on the ground. It is suggested that the graffiti may have been in response to a court decision to release two minors who had been accused of rape.
Security expert says Canada should keep eye out for ‘Islamist’ immigrants
A security expert says Canada needs to go beyond screening for terrorists landing on our shores and consider the religious beliefs of some prospective immigrants.
Scott Newark says Canada should be concerned about “Islamist” immigrants.
Newark served as executive officer of the Canadian Police Association and also worked as a security and policy advisor to both the Ontario and federal Ministers of Public Safety.
“We need to think hard about what I would call ‘Islamism’, the political Islam that has absolutely no interest whatsoever in integration, that is intolerant and unyielding and absolutely committed to eradicating Western values,” he said in an interview.
Advertising Islamophobia hits London railways
Mohammed Ansar reports on how a charity called the Quran Project planned to place posters in five major London railway stations – Waterloo, Victoria, Liverpool Street, Marylebone and St Pancras International – over the two weeks of 10-24 December, with the aim of countering misrepresentation of Islam by offering free copies of the Qur’an.
Mohammed says that the campaign had been six months in the planning and the sites were reserved by the advertising company JCDecaux at a cost of £30,000, two thirds of which was raised online through the crowd funding site JustGiving.
However, by Monday 17 December the adverts had all been taken down. An email from JCDecaux to the Quran Project stated with regard to the running of the ads that “rail companies have pointed out that this is not acceptable and we should not have done so. As a consequence, we began the process of removing your posters from the rail stations over the weekend”.
Newsnight report on Spanish far right
Yesterday’s edition of Newsnight had a report by Paul Mason on how the economic crisis in Spain has assisted the growth of the far-right group España 2000.
He visited the town of Onda in eastern Spain where España 2000 organised an anti-mosque demonstration in November 2011 and the Islamic centre was the victim of an arson attack in September this year.
See also Paul Mason, “Amid scars of past conflict Spanish far right grows”, BBC News, 18 December 2012
