Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Five injured in Athens mosque attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Athens mosque arson

Unknown assailants tried to burn down a makeshift mosque in Athens on Saturday, injuring five Bangladeshi migrants who suffered burns and respiratory problems in the attack, police said.

The attackers broke the windows of a basement flat used as a mosque early on Saturday morning and threw gasoline inside before lighting it, a police source said. Four Bangladeshi men suffered respiratory problems and a fifth was burned, police said. All were initially taken to hospital but later discharged.

The incident followed clashes in Athens between Muslim immigrants and Greek police during protests sparked by allegations that a police officer tore up and stamped on a Koran during an identity check earlier in the week.

Nearly 1,000 Muslims rallied in the citys central Omonia square on Friday in a demonstration organised by leftist, immigrant and anti-racism groups.

Violence broke out at the end of the demonstration as around 100 protesters threw projectiles at police, who tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas.

Over seventy cars and five shops were vandalised and the police arrested 46 people. Seven protestors and seven police were injured in the clashes.

A larger demonstration on Thursday involving some 1,500 Muslim immigrants also degenerated into violence with police using tear gas to disperse protesters who threw dustbins and stones.

The incident that sparked the protests occurred on Wednesday when police stopped four Syrian immigrants to check their papers. One officer allegedly tore up a Koran and stamped on it. Police have opened an investigation.

Another protest march will be held in Athens on Saturday afternoon.

Athens has no licensed mosques and thousands of Muslims immigrants residing in the city are forced to use rented flats and warehouses for their prayers.

Dawn, 24 May 2009

See also “Athens Muslim group attacked in wake of violent protests”, Deutsche Welle, 23 May 2009

Prisoners in Ranby jail make bomb to blow up Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ranby_PrisonA bomb made by jail inmates to blow up Muslim prisoners came within moments of exploding outside a prayer meeting.

The device, made with fireworks and detonators smuggled in with a fishing rod, was put in a room where worshippers wash their hands and feet for Friday prayers.

But a prison officer spotted it, picked it up and carried it into the middle of the playing field. A bomb disposal unit called to Ranby Prison in Retford, Notts, confirmed the bomb was a viable device primed to go off.

The whole prison was put into lock-down as police were called in and an inmate was arrested after explosives dogs searched the cells.

A prison source said: “This could have caused a bloodbath. It was only because of a vigilant officer that the bomb was carried away. When the bomb squad got to the jail they went mad as it could have gone off at any time.”

Sunday Mirror, 10 May 2009

Fascists behind Luton arson attack?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police sought to calm fears yesterday that a suspected arson attack on an Islamic ­centre in Luton was revenge for the picketing of homecoming British troops by Muslim extremists in March.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the UK’s leading Islamic body, said the incident, in which an explosive device was thrown into the centre just after midnight on Tuesday, was motivated by Islamophobia.

The MCB said the Call to Islam Education Centre had received threats from far-right groups two weeks after Muslim protesters picketed a homecoming event for soldiers with “Butchers of Basra” placards. The MCB called on mosques and Muslim businesses, community centres and schools in the area to take extra precautions against attack.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the MCB, said: “Although the investigation is still ongoing into this shocking crime, we cannot ignore the clear correlation between the rise of Islamophobia with the rise of extremist far-right groups in Britain.”

Bedfordshire police said there was no evidence to suggest at this stage that the fire was started by far-right extremists, although a spokeswoman said two threatening letters “full of unpleasant, racist vitriol” had been received by the centre.

Farasat Latif, the centre’s secretary, said: “We believe that this attack was carried out by far-right extremists, an attack that could have led to many deaths. Over 90 children attend our centre daily. Had this happened at a different time, the results would have been catastrophic.”

Guardian, 9 May 2009

See also Inayat Bunglawala’s piece at Comment is Free, 8 May 2009

Racist thugs attack Stortford mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Herts & Essex MosqueBishop’s Stortford’s Muslims are living in “distress, fear and isolation” after their mosque was attacked by hammer-wielding thugs who abused and intimidated their religious leader.

Imam Humayun Islam was forced to flee his community’s place of worship at Millars 2, off Southmill Road, and seek refuge in an Indian restaurant when he was chased by the drunken yobs.

The group of about five men, aged in their 20s and 30s, first struck on Monday last week while worshippers were praying for the fourth time, just before 9pm. The imam said: “They came inside and started throwing our shoes out. They were heavily drunk.”

The cleric said that when he remonstrated with the intruders and asked them to leave, he was threatened with a hammer and called a “suicide bomber”. A punch was thrown and the gang started breaking glass in the mosque door, before running off as police arrived.

After the officers left, the imam and his fellow Muslims began clearing up the damage and were horrified to hear the attackers return, this time wielding bottles. Several worshippers fled and the imam was chased. He managed to avoid harm only by giving the gang the slip and hiding in the takeaway.

On Tuesday, he told the Observer: “It was a serious racist attack.” He said that it was the most frightening of a series of problems for the town’s Muslims amid a growing atmosphere of Islamophobia.

Herts & Essex Observer, 6 May 2009

Update:  See “Police appeal for witnesses after Stortford mosque attack”, Herts & Essex Observer, 6 May 2009

Arson attack on Islamic centre in Luton

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton Islamic CentreAn Islamic centre in Bedfordshire has been gutted by fire in what police believe was an arson attack. No-one was injured in the blaze, which started just after midnight at the centre in Bury Park Road, Luton.

A police spokesman said there was “considerable damage” and the road was likely to remain closed while forensic teams investigated the cause. Insp Martin Peters said: “It appears an accelerant was used and our immediate priorities include who started this fire and why, and making motorists aware.”

BBC News, 5 May 2009

Update:  Never a paper to pass up an opportunity to exacerbate tensions between communities, the Daily Star reports:

“Fears of a race war grew yesterday after right-wing extremists were accused of firebombing a mosque…. The attack will inflame the town gripped by race tension since riot cops broke up a ‘Reclaim The Streets’ rally aimed at police and council inaction over the taunting of the troops.”

The Star goes on to quote rent-a-mouth idiot Anjem Choudary – “there’s no telling how young extremist Muslims will react” – and a supporter of the Facebook group “Ban the Terrorists” who stated: “I think this centre was firebombed because these Muslim extremists tend to hang out nearby.”

I’m going to quit Scotland because people have been nasty to me, says bomb-threat racist facing jail term

Posted on by Bob Pitt

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA racist who threatened to bomb Scotland’s biggest mosque last night whined he would quit the country – because people had been “nasty” to him.

Neil MacGregor had also threatened to behead one Muslim a week until every mosque was shut down. The thug faces jail after admitting a racist breach of the peace. But yesterday, he tried to defend his behaviour by claiming he’d been freaked out after viewing a film of a hostage being beheaded. And he claimed he was a reformed character who had turned to religion.

MacGregor bleated: “When all this is over, I will be leaving Scotland. I have had enough of it and the people. I have had nothing but nastiness here.”

Last night, a leading Muslim dismissed his self-pitying squeals as a cynical attempt to obtain a soft sentence. Osama Saeed, chief executive of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said:

“If he is insincerely trying to mitigate any punishment, I hope it is not successful. If he had been a Muslim looking at videos of people dying in Iraq and threatened, as a result, to blow up a church or behead Christians, there would have been an absolute storm about this and such an individual would be looking at a really hefty sentence.”

In one threatening email to police – which led to his conviction – MacGregor, 36, wrote: “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. We see this is very easy – even you guys can handle that. 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.”

But yesterday, the vile racist bleated he felt like the victim following his arrest for the threatening calls and emails regarding Glasgow Central Mosque.

He claimed he became “enraged and emotionally upset” in February 2007 after viewing a video clip of a British hostage being beheaded in Iraq – and made his anti-Muslim threats.

MacGregor claimed to the Record that Osama Saeed had asked to meet him upon the completion of any sentence “to help combat Islamophobia”. But Osama said last night: “His claim is simply not true, though if he is sincere in wanting to tackle Islamophobia after his punishment we would work with him in the same way we would anyone else.”

He added: “It’s all too easy to dismiss MacGregor as a fantasist and lunatic – many of the Muslims convicted of terror offences could be similarly described.”

Daily Record, 22 April 2009

Racist escapes terror charge after threat to behead and bomb Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Neil MacGregorThe Crown Office has been accused of double standards by Scotland’s biggest Islamic group for not bringing terrorism charges against a man who threatened to blow up a mosque and behead Muslims.

The Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) has written to Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini querying the decision to prosecute Neil MacGregor for a breach of the peace, not terrorism offences.

MacGregor, 35, has admitted threatening to blow up Scotland’s biggest mosque and to behead one Muslim a week until every mosque was shut down. He will be sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Friday.

“There has been criticism for the lack of exposure this case has got, but this stems from how the case was originally handled,” SIF chief executive Osama Saeed said. “Had he been a Muslim, we suspect that counter-terror police would have been involved from the outset, and it would have been processed in a completely different manner.”

Mr Saeed drew a parallel with the case of Mohammed Atif Siddique, a student from Alva, Clackmannanshire, who was jailed for eight years for internet-related terrorist crimes.

“No-one seems to have looked into the internet habits that radicalised MacGregor to take copycat revenge for (British hostage] Ken Bigley’s assassination in Iraq,” he said. “We can be sure if he had been Muslim and had been inspired to replicate it, the result would have been quite different.”

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Facebook campaign against proposed mosque in Lichfield

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lichfield mosque threat

A leading Muslim businessman says he is “frightened” by the response a plan to build a mosque in an historic city has received. It has emerged that a group is using a social networking site which has been set up in protest at plans by Lichfield’s growing Muslim community to build a mosque in the city.

Curry entrepreneur Abdul Salam, who has lived in the city for 25 years and owns the Eastern Eye restaurant, unveiled the plan last week and as yet no planning application has been submitted to Lichfield District Council. But already more than 1,600 people have posted objections on Facebook.

Mr Salam claimed that one objection stated that if the mosque was built it would be burned down. He said: “Comments like burn up the mosque which have been left on Facebook show that we have a tremendous problem in Lichfield which we didn’t think we had. We have been left concerned and a bit frightened. We are looking to live together in peace.”

Another objector said: “There is no way we will have a mosque overshadow our beautiful cathedral city.” A third objector recorded: “I’ve been all over this world, came back to Lichfield – it’s one of the last unspoilt bastions of Englishness.”

Birmingham Post, 8 April 2009

See also “MP warns against plan for traditional mosque in Lichfield”, The Lichfield Blog, 1 April 2009

Update:  See “Lichfield Cathedral in BNP advert row”, Birmingham Mail, 23 April 2009

 

Widespread support for mosque after fire

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Luton Council of Faiths solidarity event

Faith leaders have encouraged ‘a stance of peace and calm’ following a fire that was started outside a mosque.

Members of Luton Council of Faiths met outside the Bury Park Jamie Masjid in Bury Park Road, Luton, to express solidarity after two wheelie bins were set alight outside the building in the early hours of Monday morning.

Chairman Zafar Khan, said: “As Luton Council of Faiths, we therefore pledge our strong resolve, to continue playing an active role in creating an environment of understanding and respect amongst the many religious and culturally diverse communities in the town.

“We wish to convey, to everyone at the Masjid, our message of solidarity, prayers, support and encouragement for the stance of peace and calm which the mosque leadership has chosen to convey across to the Muslim community after the arson attack on the mosque.”

A full police investigation is currently being carried out in relation to the incident, and officers are keen to trace any members of the public who may have seen anyone acting suspiciously in the area.

Anyone with information about this incident can contact DC Knight, in confidence, on 01582 473142 Bedfordshire Police on 101, or text information to 07786 200011.

Luton On Sunday, 7 April 2009

Egg thrown at woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A woman wearing a hijab was hit above the eye by an egg thrown from a passing car in what police in Surrey described as a racially-aggravated assault. It happened as she walked past the Children’s Centre, in Church Road, Frimley, at about 2100 GMT on 22 March.

She told police that a light blue Peugeot 206 drove past her and tooted, but when she turned round one of several young men inside threw the egg. She suffered a small bump above her eye but did not require medical treatment.

BBC News, 3 April 2009