Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Grieving dad can’t find son’s grave

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sajawal HussainA father, who has been unable to locate his baby’s grave since vandals removed the headstone, said he was heartbroken by another attack on the same Bradford cemetery.

Sajawal Hussain, 49, said he was devastated when he saw the destruction caused by vandals at Bowling Cemetery in Rooley Lane. About 40 gravestones in the Muslim part of the cemetery had been toppled and shattered, prompting a police investigation and high-visibility patrols.

Mr Hussain said the vandalism brought back memories of when the headstone on his son’s grave was stolen earlier this year. He said: “I can’t find my son’s grave any more, I don’t know where it is. It’s heartbreaking, words cannot explain.

Mr Hussain’s son, Ali Shan Ramzan, died in 1986 when he was only 16 hours old. His twin sister survived. Mr Hussain, who has two other daughters and two sons, said the stone marking his son’s grave had been quite small. “It was for a small child, it was just a stone,” he said.

After the marker was removed by vandals Mr Hussain spoke to his son’s funeral directors and cemetery managers who gave him the plot number and location of his son’s grave. But he said it was impossible to pinpoint the exact spot.

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Muslim graves attacked by vandals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gravestones in the Muslim section of a Bradford cemetery have been attacked and damaged by vandals. Police have appealed for information and witnesses after vandals knocked over headstones at the Bowling Cemetery in Rooley Lane, Brierley.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said officers and council park rangers were now patrolling the area in an effort to deter further attacks. House to house inquiries have also been carried out in the area.

Insp Suzanne Akeroyd said: “This type of damage causes great distress to surviving family members, and so we are working closely with Bradford Council to catch the culprits and prevent any further damage.”

BBC News, 30 November 2006

Update:  See “Fury as vandals target Muslim graves”, Northern Echo, 1 December 2006

Muslims scared to go back to Cronulla beach

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CronullaMany young Muslim Australians are still too terrified to return to Cronulla, almost one year on from the riots, a spokesman said yesterday.

Independent Centre for Research Australia president Fadi Rahman said: “When we speak with them behind closed doors they’re quite afraid to go to Cronulla on their own. They believe that what has happened should have taught everyone a good lesson but they honestly believe it has not changed anything and that there are still racist elements in the community. They are scared that [tensions] will escalate again.”

It is almost a year since rioters invaded train carriages to set upon youths of Middle Eastern appearance. Yesterday trains to Cronulla were again the scene of commotion – this time in the name of peace. Youth workers from western and southern suburbs chartered the “peace train” to take hundreds of young people from Bankstown to Cronulla. Line dancers, African drummers and indigenous performers snaked through the carriages to promote cultural diversity. A parade and music workshops were held at Dunningham Park beside Cronulla beach.

Sydney Morning Herald, 25 November 2006

‘We’re leaving the country after racists abused and spat at me’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A white Muslim mother who was spat at and abused by drunken football fans in front of her children today told of her humiliation at the hands of the “racist cowards”. Mother-of-five Michelle Idrees, 27, from Luton, said she had been too scared to travel to London or use public transport since the ordeal.

British-born convert Mrs Idrees was called a “f***ing Muslim slag” and told her son, then aged four, would be the “next suicide bomber” by a family of Arsenal supporters on a busy train. She is now planning to leave Britain because she feels her children have no future in this country.

Mrs Idrees said: “It was terrifying. All my children were crying hysterically, but these men wouldn’t stop. It makes me sick to think things have got so bad for Muslims that three men can say such disgusting things and threaten to punch a mother in the face, in front of her children, and nobody on the train does anything.”

One of the men had called her a “Paki-loving whore” and told her to go back to her own country. “They were big, aggressive men. I wouldn’t have answered back but I had to protect my children. Britain’s changed so much since 9/11 and 7/7 that people think we’re all terrorists.”

Mrs Idrees, who was wearing a headscarf, had been to London last August to attend an Islamic commemorative service for victims of the London bombings. She was travelling home on a Thameslink train with four of her children Stephen, 12, Chelsea, 10, Sharnia, six, and Shazan, five, as well as a friend’s two children and a neighbour, when the half-hour tirade began. Mrs Idrees, who converted to Islam after meeting her second husband, told the men that real Muslims did not support terrorism.

“They called the police and told them I had bomb in my handbag. Then they called a black woman on the train a nigger. They’re just racist cowards.”

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‘Riot mosque gets the go-ahead’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the headline to an article in today’s Daily Express, reporting on the latest developments concerning the Medina Dairy in Windsor. The article begins: “Plans for a mosque at the centre of race-hate clashes were given the go-ahead by John Prescott’s office yesterday. Residents of Windsor, where only 500 of the 30,000 population are Muslim, reacted with fury after a planning inspector overturned a local council ruling. They accused the government of political correctness and warned the decision could lead to more violence.”

Man sentenced for racial attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man who carried out a religiously aggravated attack in Leicester has been given a suspended jail sentence. Alan Young, 55, from Bourne Crescent, Northampton admitted common assault, religiously aggravated assault and harassment on 7 July.

Leicester magistrates heard he had made remarks about Muslims and hit a Muslim man at a health centre on the first anniversary of the London bombings. Young was given a four-month jail sentence suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay £200 compensation to the man he attacked.

The court heard Young, who had consumed three quarters of a bottle of whiskey, went into the surgery on Evington Road and shouted it was “kill a Muslim day”. He made remarks about the London bombings and punched a Muslim man five or six times in the face. Young then went on to shout further remarks about Muslims from a nearby property and hit an Asian man after making comments about Iraq.

In court the 55-year-old accepted he had behaved very badly.

BBC News, 22 November 2006

Surge in anti-Muslim racism in London schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Racist incidents in London schools have increased by 26 per cent in just one year. Attacks on Muslim children have increased since the 7/7 bombings and the debate about the wearing of the veil has prompted further incidents. The figures include verbal and written insults, physical attacks and spreading racist material over the internet.

Professor Heidi Mirza, an expert in equality studies at the Institute of Education, University of London, said: “Islamophobia is a huge problem since the July bombings with Muslim children becoming the focus of abuse and Jack Straw’s comments about women wearing a veil, which is just guarded racism, has led to Muslim girls being taunted in the playground.”

Evening Standard, 20 November 2006

End attacks on Muslims – London rally on Monday

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Defend Freedom of Religion rallyNational Rally to defend freedom of religion, conscience and thought
Date:  20th November 2006
Venue:  Methodist Central Hall Westminster, London SW1
Time:  6.00pm to 9.30pm

Freedom of religion is one of our most precious democratic rights. It took hundreds of years, including international and civil wars, to establish the right of every individual to freely pursue their religious beliefs subject only to their conscience and to the necessary and proportionate protection of the rights and the freedoms of others.  It must be defended against every challenge.

Britain today faces a systematic campaign by sections of the media and some politicians, fanned by the BNP, to undermine this right by sowing hatred against Muslims. This has culminated in physical attacks, fire bombings and assaults on women. This campaign constitutes an attack on civil and religious liberties including an attempt to suppress the right of persons of all faiths to dress in accordance with their religious convictions. It must be strongly opposed – as indeed should any attack on the rights of Christians, Jews, Sikhs or any other religious group.

It is necessary for all democrats, of all faiths and none, to come together to defend these basic principles of freedom of religion and culture.

As the first step, faith groups are coming together with all political parties and communities to a central London public rally to defend freedom of thought, conscience and religion and to call for an end to the recent attacks on Muslims.

The aim is to develop a national campaign to defend freedom of religion and culture and to combat the rise of Islamophobia.

Arrest made after fire at mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police have arrested a 36-year-old man after a fire broke out at a mosque in Cardiff on Tuesday morning. Officers and fire crews were called to the Madina mosque in Cathays, just before 0830 GMT when a fire on the second floor spread to the roof. South Wales Fire Service said about a quarter of the building was lost to the fire, but they were able to save a number of meeting rooms.

BBC News, 14 November 2006

‘Wear a Hijab Day’ – US Muslims’ response to killing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Despite attempts by the foreign media to send a message that hate crimes against Muslims are on the decrease worldwide. Evidence shows that the problem is only worsening.

The hijab has been the subject of much attention last month after mother-of-six Alia Ansari, from Fremont in California, was shot dead at pointblank in a Glenmoor neighborhood. Ansari was wearing hijab when she was slain in front of her three-year-old daughter near her home on Oct. 19. She was on her way to collect her children from elementary school.

Some family members and Muslim leaders have speculated that the only motive anyone would have for killing her was the garment of her faith – her hijab – and that the crime was none other but a hate crime against Muslims and Islam. “Whoever did this did not see Alia Ansari as a mother of six children,” said Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, a well known and respected local Muslim scholar and leader. “The gunman saw a symbol of what people are taught to hate,” he told the media standing outside Ansari’s home.

In response to the tragedy, US Muslim community leaders and the Foundation of Self Reliance are organizing a “Wear a Hijab Day” on Nov. 13 as a symbolic gesture of solidarity in support of Ansari.

Arab News, 8 November 2006