Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Brisbane mosque vandalised with anti-Muslim graffiti

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Brisbane mosque graffiti

Vandals have spray-painted abusive messages across a mosque in southern Brisbane.

The words “die” and “Muslims are evil and have no respect for our ways” were spray-painted on the Indonesian community mosque at Rocklea. Muslim community leaders and police were alerted to the vandalism on Wednesday evening.

A police forensic team has begun an investigation.

It is the second Muslim prayer site in Queensland to be defaced in less than a week. A mosque at Mareeba in far north Queensland was vandalised last Friday.

Islamic Indonesian Community of Queensland president Hamid Mawardi praised police for their quick response to the attack on the Rocklea mosque. He said he had no idea who had vandalised the mosque but that it was “probably just kids”.

“I think this is a misperception about Islam – we are here, Australian,” he said. “I’ve been here for years and we live nice and peacefully and whoever did this – respect us as Australians.”

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‘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

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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Queensland’s Muslim women targeted amid terrorism hysteria

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Despite pleas for calm from the Queensland Premier and senior police, Muslims – particularly women – have been targeted in a series of hate attacks.

The Sunday Mail can reveal Muslim women are being singled out, including one victim who had coffee thrown in her face while she was stopped at traffic lights south of Brisbane. The woman said a man in a car pulled up beside her and callously doused her in coffee before driving off along Beenleigh Rd. “I was terrified,” she said. “I feel unsafe. I feel like a stranger in my own country.”

Other Muslim women have been abused and threatened, with one told to take off her headscarf – or hijab – at West End by a man who wanted to burn it. The women did not want to be identified, and all believe they are “collateral damage” from recent police anti-terrorism raids which have fuelled fear and suspicion across the nation.

Sarah, 30, said she’d been waiting outside a shop in Logan Rd at Underwood with a 12-year-old girl when insults were hurled at her by a man riding past on a pushbike. “He yelled f— jihad, f— off, go back home you c— and continued to verbally abuse us,” she said. In the next 20 minutes she was abused twice by other men. “It’s quite frightening to hear such vile language and hatred. I was fearful,” she said.

Stacey, 27, said she had copped offensive insults online. “I’m a seventh generation Australian,” she said. “My family are as Australian as you can get and I’m scared.”

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Islamophobia gets stronger by the day

Posted on by Bob Pitt

All Muslims out of UKRemona Aly, whose brother Shaizir arrived at his home in south east London recently to find this notice sticky-taped to his front door, has a comment piece at the Guardian reflecting on the rising tide of Islamophobia in the UK.

Aly points out that, while spikes in anti-Muslim hate crime follow events such as Lee Rigby’s murder, the Rotherham abuse scandal and the killings by ISIS, there is “a low-level, simmering current of anti-Muslim hatred regardless”.

Aly relates the experiences of British Muslims she knows who have been spat at, had bottles thrown at them, been threatened by skinheads, accused of being terrorists, and told “you’re disgusting, go back to your own country”.

She writes: “Horrific crimes carried out in the name of religion are as much anathema to the average Muslim Briton as they are to any Briton. An additional burden for us, however, is the warped assumption that British Muslims are somehow to blame for the actions of murderers. The notion that Muslims should feel some form of collective guilt and be collectively punished is a reprehensible one, but it seems to be evident into an increasing number of people’s attitudes.”

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Burglars target Rotherham mosque, throw copies of the Qur’an on the floor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Burglars have targeted a town centre mosque in an apparent hate attack. Raiders broke into Chapel Walk Mosque in the early hours of Tuesday morning. They ransacked offices, stole money from a collection box and damaged microphone equipment. They also threw copies of the Qur’an on the floor, leading one faith leader to blame right wing elements.

Rotherham Council of Mosques chair Saghir Alam said: “There was a lot of damage. I just can’t understand it. This is meant to be a place of peace, spirituality and worship.” He added: “This went beyond burglary because they didn’t just steal something and leave – they’ve damaged the electrics and thrown our holy books around. I can’t say for sure it was a hate crime, but these facts suggest that it is.”

Fiyaz Mughal, director of national anti-bigotry group Tell MAMA, said: “Given that the place was smashed up and holy books thrown on the floor, this could well be a hate crime. People target mosques because they are very visible institutions, so sadly this isn’t news to us.” He added: “Before the march on Saturday some were putting addresses of mosques on Twitter and saying: ‘Let’s smash them up.’”

Last week Chief Supt Jason Harwin said police are working with mosques to stamp out attacks on innocent Muslims, following a spate of street attacks. Saghir said officers have been “very proactive” in investigating these reports, as well as Wednesday’s break-in.

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Islamic State and Rotherham abuse ‘fuelling far right’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL grooming placardIslamic State extremism and the Rotherham abuse scandal are fuelling a far-right backlash in the UK, one of the Home Office’s most senior advisers on right-wing extremism has said.

The anonymous worker claims the government has overlooked the problem amid its focus on tackling jihadists.

The Home Office says it is working to prevent “all forms of extremism”. But the Institute for Strategic Dialogue claims the government must engage more with the far right.

The senior adviser works directly with right-wing extremists as part of the Home Office’s Prevent strategy, and asked to remain anonymous to protect his personal safety. He says the government has underestimated the threat posed by the far right in Britain.

“This is one of the most worrying periods in right-wing extremism, given the growth in right-wing groups and the recent news events which are making them more angry,” he explains.

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New plans revealed for Dudley mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dudley mosque new plan

New plans have been revealed for a new mosque in Dudley on the controversial Hall Street site.

Previous plans for the site faced strong opposition from protestors who said the building would dominate the Dudley skyline, it sparked violent demonstrations in the town from the English Defence League in 2010.

The new design has been developed after consultation with town planners and features a shorter minaret, down from 109 feet to 61 feet, and the floor area of the building has been cut by 16 per cent.

The proposed mosque’s designer, Al Samarraie of Archi-Structure (Consultant), said:

“The community has been at its existing site for over 35 years and the building is not fit for purpose, particularly for women, children, elderly and disabled people. The community want to build modern facilities that will be accessible to local people and offer a modern place of worship.”

The is development is lower than the highest roof level of the adjacent Allan Nuttall’s Limited warehouse and designed to be environmentally friendly with green living roofs.

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