Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Racial and religious attacks up 12 per cent

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racially and religiously motivated attacks have risen 12% in the past year, according to government figures to be released this week.

The Ministry of Justice statistics show there were 41,000 racially or religiously aggravated offences in 2005-06, the latest year for which figures are available. Experts are likely to link the increase to fears related to terrorism and immigration.

Following the attack on Glasgow airport in June, racist incidents across Scotland have soared, with sharp rises in violent attacks, abuse and harassment in the four weeks after the car bombing. The worst cases included attempts to blow up an Asian shop and a mosque.

The statistics showed the proportion of Asians killed by “sharp instruments” had risen from 4.5% to 8.5%. There was a surge around the time of 9/11, with such killings doubling to 30 between April 2001 and March 2002.

The rise in Islamophobia in Britain after 9/11 was charted in a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, which found increases in assault, verbal abuse, damage to property and Muslim women being spat at.

Times, 28 October 2007

Italy: eighth mosque attacked in Lombardy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A mosque in a small town outside Milan has been the target of a violent attack – the eighth on mosques in the region of Lombardy surrounding the city.

Italian media reports said the Alif Baa Islamic Centre, in the northern Italian city of Abbiategrasso, 20 kilometres west of Milan, was subjected to fresh violence on Wednesday. Witnesses said a masked man was seen throwing a Molotov cocktail inside the courtyard of the mosque from his motorcycle in the late afternoon. No major damage or injuries were reported in the attack.

This is the eighth assault against Islamic centres in the region of Lombardy in recent months. The Alif Baa Islamic Centre reported other attacks on 25 July and 10 August this year. Another mosque in the nearby city of Segrate was attacked on 5 August and the car of the Imam, Hamid Zariate, was destroyed.

AKI, 25 October 2007

Bakersfield mosque attack investigated as hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Kern County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a mosque attack as a possible hate crime. Authorities say Saturday’s incident left windows broken, cars smashed and worshippers frightened.

Witnesses reported that two men entered the women’s section of the mosque early Saturday morning. When the women called for help, the suspects left, allegedly yelling slurs such as “Arab terrorists” and “terrorists go home” as they ran out.

Later that night, witnesses said about 10 people returned to the mosque. They allegedly smashed the windows and damaged the cars that remained in the parking lot.

A spokesman with the sheriff’s department says when deputies arrived, they saw some people throwing rocks at the mosque. No arrests have been made in the case.

Associated Press, 9 October 2007

Ohio radio host says Islam’s ‘goal’ is ‘sex with children’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio chapter (CAIR-Ohio) today called on a local radio station to reprimand a talk show host who claimed that the goal of Islam is “sex with children for eternity.”

Yesterday, WLW-AM host Bill “Willie” Cunningham said on air: “The great war of this generation’s time is the war against Islamic fascists…. They do not live for life, they live for death. Only through death can they believe they can be with those 72 virgins in heaven and have sex with children for eternity, which is the goal of that religion.”

“These outrageous and inflammatory remarks can only serve to promote the kind of anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry that have such a negative impact on our society and on our nation’s international image,” said CAIR-Cincinnati Executive Director Karen Dabdoub. “Unfortunately, this troubling incident is further evidence of the growing level of rhetorical attacks on Muslims and Islam in the public arena.”

Dabdoub added that hate-filled words can and do lead to violent actions against Muslims. She said there have been several recent apparently bias-related incidents targeting Muslims in Ohio, including Nazi swastikas and the phrase “white power” spray-painted on a Toledo Islamic school and rocks thrown at worshipers outside a Columbus mosque.

Other recent incidents nationwide include a shot fired into a Texas mosque, a Muslim woman in New York being badly beaten in a bias attack, arsonists torching a mosque in Northern California, and vandals slashing the tires of vehicles owned by a Maryland Muslim activist.

CAIR press release, 2 October 2007

Driver attempts to run woman over

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man’s attempt to run a Muslim woman over with his car while she waited for a bus in Southampton was racially motivated, police have said. The 30-year-old woman, wearing a hijab, was targeted at Lordshill Centre on August 23.

The man drove up next to her in a red car and verbally abused her, before trying to mount the kerb in his car. He then drove off towards a nearby roundabout, before driving back towards the woman, who ran off. “The woman, from Southampton, ran into a nearby library to escape further abuse, she was uninjured, but was left shaken by the incident,” a police spokeswoman told The Muslim News.

Police want to speak to a woman who was at the bus stop during the incident and the driver of another car who beeped his horn when the vehicle attempted to drive onto the pavement. The man has been described as white, middle-aged, of medium build, with short brown hair and a round face. He wore a yellow top. Officers said part of the registration number of the car he was driving was M214.

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Southampton told The Muslim News, “It’s unfortunate that the lady had to go through that ordeal, we appeal to the Southampton community to help the police catch the perpetrator. We should not tolerate any forms of intimidation to any section of society.”

The Muslim News, 28 September 2007

See also BBC News, 31 August 2007

The worst of Worcester

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Worcester“Think of Worcester and a vision of a pretty cathedral, rolling hills and the famous Malvern natural springs would probably come to the mind of Guardian readers…. The truth is, if you are British Pakistani or Pakistan-born male, there are few less desirable places to live in Britain than Worcester.

“Why? The following brutal attacks have occurred on Pakistani taxi drivers in recent times: • A driver was doused with petrol and set on fire. • Another was left with psychological problems after being smashed over the head with a metal bar. • Another was almost choked to death with his seatbelt. • Another was stabbed and left for dead. • In yet another incident, a driver suffered severe facial injuries after being lured by his passengers into a quiet cul-de-sac….

“Some of the community I spoke to blame the British National Party for ratcheting-up racial tensions through leaflets that complain migrant workers take up jobs previously held by ‘British’ students. Others warn of the Islamification of Britain and appeal for an end to new mosques in the city. Pakistanis claim that the attacks follow terrorism-related stories that appear in the media; it gives white racists an excuse to relieve their frustration on innocent cab drivers. Only this summer a CS gas canister was thrown into Worcester Central Mosque.”

Nadeem Badshah at Comment is Free, 26 September 2007

Long Island Muslim woman victim of hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zohreh Assemi, 50, owns Givan Nail and Skin Center, a high-end nail salon in a cluster of chic stores near Birch Hill Road called The Plaza. At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Assemi was opening her second-floor shop when two men burst out of a bathroom across the hall. They grabbed her from behind, put a gun to her head and forced her inside, she said. There, they slammed her head on a counter, shoved a towel in her mouth, smashed her hand with a hammer and sliced her face, neck, back and chest with a knife and a box cutter, she said. “They were cursing, ‘ — — Muslim, leave Locust Valley, leave The Plaza. Go back to the place you came from,'” she recalled. They scrawled anti-Muslim messages on her mirrors and tore the place up, she said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the FBI Sunday to investigate the beating as a hate crime. “The bias attack on Zohreh Assemi is an indicator of the rising trend of Islamophobia that is growing in certain segments of American society and is promoted by a small minority of Islamophobes,” said Aliya Latif, civil rights director of the group’s New York chapter. Last year, the group saw a 9 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes across the country, she said.

Newsday, 16 September 2007

‘Followers of Islam cannot be trusted by Americans’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Someone in high authority and great influence needs to sound a wake-up alarm for America. There are too many of us who do not recognize or do not accept the fact that we are in a war for our lives. America is teetering on the edge of a bottomless abyss, and the Islamic jihadists are systematically and successfully gathering the necessary strength to push us over the edge. Our complacency in recognizing this threat could be our downfall….

“We surely have learned our lesson by now about Islamic loyalty. They actually have no country to die for. Even if they did, they would quickly die for Mohammed and Islam long before they would die for the nation in which they live. In that regard, such terms as German-Islamists, British-Islamists, French-Islamists, American Islamists, etc., etc., are useful only to identify the country in which they reside.

“Also, it is extremely dangerous to try to differentiate Islamic adherents anywhere in the world by such terms as ‘radical’ or ‘peaceful’ or ‘nonviolent’ or ‘innocent’. An Islamist by any other name is still an Islamist. We are making a grave mistake to believe in a peaceful, nonviolent, innocent follower of Islam.”

News-Leader.com, 15 September 2007

Corpus Christi police and the FBI on Friday investigated shots fired at a local mosque, an incident that occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Investigators consider the incident a hate crime. Imam Osama Bahloul said he was shocked and saddened to make the discovery. This is the first such incident in the estimated 10-year history of the mosque, which has about 600 members.

Bahloul said the shooting may have been spurred by any number of things, including the start of Ramadan, the recent anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the portrayal of Islam in the media. “We will do anything we can to find out who did this,” Bahloul said. “We want people to understand each other and be familiar with each other. We have to stop stereotypes, stop hate crimes and live peacefully.”

Corpus Christi Caller Times, 15 September 2007

Straw words ‘sparked veil attack’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A leading Muslim has blamed Jack Straw’s comments for an attack in which a woman’s veil was torn from her face. The woman was attacked in Liverpool by a man shouting racist abuse, the day after the former foreign secretary criticised veils that cover the face. Mohammed Akbar Ali, ex-chairman of the Liverpool Islamic Institute, said Mr Straw should have known better.

Merseyside Police, who say the attack was a hate crime, met Muslim leaders on Saturday to hear their concerns.

Mr Akbar Ali, who was involved in the campaign to free Liverpool hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq, said the attack was no coincidence. “I put the blame squarely and without any hesitation on Jack Straw,” he said. “He’s a responsible member of the government and is in a constituency with a large number of Muslims – he should have known better than make such a statement.”

Mr Straw, Labour MP for Blackburn and leader of the House of Commons, said he believed covering faces could make community relations more difficult. He said watching facial expressions was an important part of contact between people. Mr Straw said he asked Muslim women meeting him at his constituency surgeries to remove their veils.

BBC News, 12 October 2006

Hate crime yobs target Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Revolting thugs urinated on to shoes and clothes belonging to worshipping Muslims. Police are treating the incident as a hate crime against Bath’s Muslim community and say they are determined to track down the perpetrators. The two male offenders entered the lobby of the Bath Islamic Centre in Pierrepont Street during evening prayers, before urinating on clothing and shoes left in the entrance by worshippers. Their mindless vandalism has disgusted members of the mosque and left the belongings of five people damaged.

Imam Rashad Amazi, a leader at the Bath Islamic Centre, said the victims were disgusted by the crime. He said: “They felt disbelief and they were horrified. While they were doing their prayers they heard very loud shouting inside the building. They couldn’t break their prayers but they were terrified. As soon as they’d finished, they ran to the ground floor where they thought the shouting was coming from. By that time the people had left. They smelled the alcohol and the urine and then found there was urine in their shoes and on the carpets.”

Rosco Jones, from Bath and North East Somerset Racial Equality Council, said he was concerned that other victims of hate crime were keeping quiet about their experiences in an effort to evade more attention. He said: “The main concern is that not as many victims of hate crime resulting from the heightened concerns around Islamic-based terrorism are coming forward to say they’ve been attacked. People on the whole are just keeping the information to themselves. That is quite bad. The police and authorities such as ourselves need to be aware so we can take normal community safety preventative action.”

Bath Chronicle, 3 September 2007

The British National Party are not happy: “The police, instead of treating it as a stupid misdemeanor, are pulling out all the stops to track down the two culprits, for no other reason than to curry favour with Bath’s growing Muslim community.”

BNP Regional Voices, 3 September 2007