Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Man in court over death threat to Salma Yaqoob

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma_yaqoobA man appeared in court yesterday charged with threatening to kill a Birmingham councillor. Stuart Collins, 48, of Birmingham, appeared before city magistrates over claims abusive threats were sent to Respect councillor Salma Yaqoob. She is the councillor for Sparkbrook and her party’s national leader.

A West Midlands Police spokesman confirmed: “Following an investigation, a 48 year-old has been charged with racially aggravated harassment, religiously aggravated harassment and making threats to kill. He appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court and was bailed until August 31.”

Coun Yaqoob chairs the anti-war movement in Birmingham and is an active pro-Palestinian campaigner. She is an outspoken commentator on Muslim issues, and regularly appears on TV and radio current affairs programmes. After standing as a Respect candidate in the 2005 election, she was elected in the Sparkbrook ward in the 2006 local elections.

Birmingham Post, 16 August 2009

Muslim women avoid reporting racism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shouts of “Terrorist” and “Osama Bin Laden” on the way into an Eid party. Being chased out of a park crying because a man thinks the way you dress is a danger to children. Both racism. Both to Muslim women. Neither reported to the police.

Catrin Nye of BBC Asian Network has been investigating after a charity set up to offer the women support claimed hundreds of racist crimes against Muslim women in Scotland are going unreported.

BBC News, 6 August 2009

Via ENGAGE

Mosque threat man avoids prison

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Neil MacGregorA Derbyshire man who threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque has been sentenced to three years’ probation.

Neil MacGregor, 36, had also said he would execute a Muslim a day unless all of Scotland’s Mosques were closed. He made the threats after watching an internet video of a British hostage being beheaded in Iraq.

Sheriff Andrew Mackie said he did not believe custody would help to address the root cause of MacGregor’s problem which was his mental health.

At an earlier hearing, MacGregor, from Melbourne, Derbyshire, admitted a racial breach of the peace. He telephoned and e-mailed Strathclyde Police to make the threats from a flat in Glasgow, between 30 January and 15 February 2007. The court heard that the e-mail read:

“I’m a proud racist and National Front member. We as an organisation have decided to deal with the current threat from Muslims in our own British way, like our proud ancestors. Our demands are very small. Close all mosques in Scotland. If our demands aren’t met by next Friday, we’ll kidnap one Muslim and execute him or her on the internet, just like they did to our Ken Bigley.”

MacGregor then followed up the e-mail with a call threatening to blow up Central Mosque.

Muslim leaders criticised the way MacGregor’s case was dealt with by the police and courts. Osama Saeed, of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said he believed that if a young Muslim had similarly threatened violence after viewing videos from Iraq, he would have been dealt with completely differently by the police.

BBC News, 7 August 2009

See Scottish Islamic Foundation press release, 7 August 2009

Update:  See also Inayat Bunglawala’s piece at Comment is Free, 8 August 2009

Update 2:  See “Former soldier who issued mosque bomb threat jailed”, BBC News, 6 April 2011

Blackwater founder implicated in murder

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOver at The Nation Jeremy Scahill reports that former employees of Blackwater, the private military and security company that worked as a contractor for the United States government during the invasion and occupation of Iraq, have made some shocking acusations against its owner Erik Prince, including allegations of involvement in the murder of individuals who were co-operating with federal authorities investigating the company.

Among the charges against Prince is that he “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”, according to a declaration by one of the witnesses. The declaration continues:

“To that end, Mr. Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades.

“Mr. Prince operated his companies in a manner that encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life. For example, Mr. Prince’s executives would openly speak about going over to Iraq to ‘lay Hajiis out on cardboard’. Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game. Mr. Prince’s employees openly and consistently used racist and derogatory terms for Iraqis and other Arabs, such as ‘ragheads’ or ‘hajiis’.”

Via Lenin’s Tomb

BNP whips up hatred against Muslims in Loughton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP leaflet Loughton

The British National Party has been accused of whipping up racial tensions in the district after it issued an inflammatory leaflet about a local Muslim community group.

In the latest edition of the BNP’s Epping Forest Patriot, delivered to many households in Loughton, the group attack the use on Friday afternoons of the Murray Hall, in Borders Lane, for Islamic prayer sessions. Under a picture of a union flag being eaten away by the Islamic moon and crescent the leaflet says: “In parts of neighbouring Redbridge and east London the Islamification process is almost complete. We’ll do all in our power to prevent Islam creeping into our town.” The leaflet is headed in capital letters: “No mosques in Loughton!”

Noor Ramjanally, of Valley Hill, Loughton, who started the Islamic prayer sessions at the hall has already been subjected to threats and an arson attack, which the BNP deny knowledge of. He said: “I do find it worrying because of my wife and son. We don’t deserve to be going through all this stress, we just want somewhere to pray. It’s just from people who are basically idiots. They don’t know what my religion is about. We have the support of all the community.”

Epping Forest BNP group leader Pat Richardson said she had seen the leaflet and “didn’t disagree with it.” She added: “It shouldn’t be in a community centre and I don’t think it’s appropriate in a BNP ward. It brings all sorts of problems and we don’t want problems in this area.”

Epping Forest Guardian, 3 August 2009

CCTV images released after Mosque fire

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Greenwich Islamic Centre CCTVTwo men are wanted for questioning in connection with a mosque fire where a caretaker needed hospital treatment for burns.

Police were called to reports of a fire at the Greenwich Islamic Centre, Plumstead Road, just after midnight on June 16. Caretaker Mohamed Koheeallee, 62, tried to fight the flames with buckets of water but the fire destroyed a part of the mosque and sacred Koran texts, as reported in the Times.

CCTV images have been recovered from cameras on the route 96 bus from Bexleyheath to Plumstead on the night of the fire.

Detectives from Greenwich CID want to speak to two white men aged in their 20s who were near the mosque at the time of the fire. The first has a shaved head and was wearing a black leather jacket, a t-shirt with a Lonsdale logo, jeans and white trainers. The other man was wearing a jacket with dark shoulder pads, light trainers and was holding a blue carrier bag.

Detective Sergeant Simon Beechey form Greenwich CID said: “The fire not only endangered the mosque and its community but all those who live in the surrounding area. We have been following a number of enquiries but now need public assistance in identifying the two men in the pictures.”

Anyone with information should call Police in Greenwich on 0208 284 7749 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Bexley Times, 31 July 2009

‘It’s a white country, not a Muslim state’, BNP supporter told Asian neighbours

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nigel HesmondhalghA man who made his Asian next door neighbours’ lives a misery with his anti-social and racist conduct was spared immediate jail.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Nigel Hesmondhalgh, 36, who had a British National Party sticker in the window of his Accrington home, was abusive and insulting to the couple, repeatedly picking on the wife. He piled dog dirt up in the alley outside their home and told them: “It’s a white country, not a Muslim state.”

Hesmondhalgh, said to be the carer for his brother, who has learning difficulties, told the husband of the couple he should be scared and shouted support for the BNP. The couple had lived in their home for 14 years before he moved in.

The defendant, of Stanley Street, Accrington, was given 36 weeks in custody, suspended for two years, with 18 months supervision and the Thinking Skills programme. Martin Hackett, defending, said Hesmondhalgh had been very close to his mother who died last July and he may have been adjusting.

Lancashire Telegraph, 13 July 2009

Consulting Hesmondhalgh’s Bebo profile, we find him indignantly denying that any racist language was directed against his neighbours – a claim rather undermined by the accompanying messages Nigel Hesmondhalgh says:”Kill All The Fuckin Pakkis”and What Is The Difference Between A Tea Towel And A Baseball Bat? FUCK ALL The Both Wrap Nicely Round A Pakkis Head.

And this thug has escaped a prison sentence.