Five Orthodox Jewish teens have been slammed with hate-crime charges in the brutal beating of a Pakistani immigrant in Brooklyn. “They hit me in the face with brass knuckles four or five times while somebody held my hands,” said the victim, Shahid Amber, 24, a gas station attendant. “Then they all beat and kicked me. They were screaming ‘Muslim m-f-r. You m-f-g Muslim terrorists. Go back to your country’.”
Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence
Federal charges urged in hate attack on NY Muslim
A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the Justice Department to bring federal charges against a number of teens who attacked a Muslim man in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sunday evening.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said prosecutors are calling the attack a hate crime. The victim, who will require reconstructive facial surgery, said: “They were saying you Muslim terrorist…get out of the country.”
A court hearing for two of the alleged attackers is scheduled for Friday in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
“The viciousness of this attack, coupled with the allegations of bias-motivated slurs should be sufficient to bring federal hate crime charges against the alleged attackers,” said CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar.
Iftikhar said that CAIR yesterday called on religious and political leaders to repudiate the growing Islamophobia in American society that can lead to such attacks.
Brooklyn attack victim speaks out
Police are calling it a vicious hate crime. The victim is Pakistani and his alleged attackers are a group of Jewish teenagers. The victim is at Bellevue Hospital where he is recovering. He tells us the doctors here have informed him that he will require reconstructive facial surgery.
“They were saying you Muslim terrorist..get out of the country,” Shahid Amber said.
Those are the words that 24-year-old Shahid Amber says preceded a violent attack by a mob of teenagers – an attack prosecutors are now calling a hate crime. “One of them spit in my face and then when I wipe the spit off my face, I opened my eyes and saw brass knuckles,” he said.
The incident happened Sunday night in the Midwood section of Brooklyn right outside a Dunkin’ Doughnuts near the corner of Avenue M and East 15th Street.
Shahid Amber, who is Pakistani, was standing outside eating ice cream when witnesses say he was surrounded by a group of Jewish teenagers who attacked him. This man saw it happen. “He was Pakistani, he came inside with all the blood on his face…” the man said.
Thugs asked ‘are you a Muslim?’
An eight-year old-boy was left terrified by racist thugs who punched him in the face and pulled off his mosque cap. Mohammed Tamazul was attacked whilst on his way to his uncle’s home on Stockport Road Levenshulme, Manchester where friends and family gathered for special evening Ramadan prayers. As he made his way Mohammed noticed three teenage boys following him on mountain bikes. One of them got off and asked if he was Muslim. When he didn’t reply the lout pulled his cap and started throwing kicks and punches at him before riding off again.
Mohammed’s dad Tamazul Miah said he believed the attack was a result of the negative media coverage of the Muslim community. Father of four, Mr Miah said: “My son was targeted because he is a Muslim, I can’t see any other reason. This has never happened to him or any of my other children before. My son was left shaking after the incident. He told me that whilst they were attacking him, the other two thugs were laughing and encouraging their friend to carry on. They were also saying to their friend ‘get the Muslim’.
“It was nine at night and very dark so nobody saw the incident. When they left, Mohammed called me on my mobile and I went out to get him. He was left shaken and frightened. The boys were much bigger than he was. My son is only eight-years-old – this was a cowardly attack.” Mohammed was left with bruises around his eyes and is now frightened to go out.
Mr Miah added: “Though my son went through a terrifying ordeal, he realises that not all white people are the same. We have some brilliant non-Muslim neighbours who were shocked when they found out.
CPS rules out Forest Gate child porn charges
Prosecutors have advised police not to bring child pornography charges against the man who was shot by police during a counter-terrorist raid earlier this year, it was announced tonight. A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said Mohammed Abdul Kahar would face no charges over allegations that 44 indecent images had been found on electronic equipment at his home.
Mr Kahar, 23, was shot in the shoulder when 250 police officers raided properties in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, in east London, in June. He was freed without charge after a week of questioning by anti-terror officers at the high-security Paddington Green police station.
In a statement tonight, Mr Mohammed Kahar’s family said: “Kahar was first shot, and then very publicly accused of things he knew nothing of and of which he is completely innocent. We cannot help but observe that there was a never-ending avalanche of leaked stories to the press. We have the right to expect that a proper inquiry be made of who provided the stories and why.”
See also Lenin’s Tomb, 27 October 2006
Lubbock mosque vandalized three times in one month
Vandals have struck a Lubbock mosque three times in the past month, prompting fear and calls for understanding among some in the religious center’s community.
Most recently someone used black spray paint Tuesday night to write the misspelled word “Redemtion” on the building. Vandals have also trampled the mosque’s flower beds and smashed exterior lights within the past month.
“I don’t know what is the message they’re trying to give,” said Faiz Rahman, a member of the mosque and the adviser to Texas Tech University’s Muslim Students Association. “Given that it happened three times within the last month, we’re a little concerned.”
Muslim family shot at in west London
A Muslim family of four were shot at when their car was hit by a bullet while out shopping in west London, The Muslim News reports exclusively in this week’s issue of the paper.
The incident, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the latest wave of Islamophobia attacks in the UK, took place, when the family from Bosnia were loading items in their car at Denham Car Boot Sale, near Uxbridge. The local police described the shooting, which happened on October 14, as a racial and religious hate crime, but were unable to comment further.
The father of the family told The Muslim News that he was in the car at the time but that his wife and two infant children were standing outside. “I was more concerned about the children. We adults might not die from a badly aimed bullet, but the children, it could easily have killed them,” the 45-year-old father said.
The shooting comes amid a series of attacks, mainly against Muslim women, documented in The Muslim News, which have been blamed on House of Commons leader Jack Straw and other ministers making demands on Muslims, including the removal of the face veil.
The Bosnian father also criticised Straw for provoking the shooting, saying that people like him “who incite religious hatred in people are also criminals”. “You can see we are Muslims through our dress, and my wife was wearing the niqab. It is amazing how these people could have such monstrous minds and such hatred within,” he said.
Man admits firebombing Swindon mosque
Muslim leaders say the town’s Islamic community should still be alert for backlashes stemming from incidents around the world.
The warning comes after racist firebomber Mark Bulman admitted attacking the Broad Street mosque in August following terror alerts at UK airports in the same month. The 22-year-old admitted throwing a petrol bomb through the window of the building and daubing swastikas and anti-Islamic abuse on its walls.
Azim Khan, of the Thamesdown Islamic Association, said: “It is a great relief to the whole community that this man’s actions have been brought to court and dealt with swiftly, and that his actions were his own and not backed by others or an organisation, as that would be very dangerous.
“But we still have to be alert. If anything happens anywhere in the world, we must consider that we could be a target, even though we have no interest in what goes on elsewhere.
“We are part and parcel of the community in Swindon. We are Swindonians and we want everyone to know that we have nothing to do with international incidents or politics. We just want to get on with our busy lives in this country.”
Thugs in mosque attack
Thugs burst into a mosque and savagely attacked the imam and several others as they prayed. One man was taken to hospital and at least three others were also hurt at the Eccles and Salford Islamic Centre.
The attack happened as members of the mosque were taking part in prayers for Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic year. The thugs shouted racist abuse as they lashed out at the congregation – punching and kicking anyone they came across.
Manchester Evening News, 23 October 2006
Mohammed Shafiq, from the Ramadhan Foundation, said: “This is another example of Muslims being attacked and persecuted – and the responsiblity lies with the politicians who have been on a feeding frenzy attacking Muslims and giving ammunition to thugs’ hatred towards us. The responsibility for this lies with the likes of Jack Straw, Phil Woolas and others who believe it’s open season on Muslims.”
Three cheers for Peter Oborne
“Until only a few months ago, mainstream British politicians were extremely cautious about articulating the fears and resentments felt by many ordinary people on the subject of mass immigration. Those who spoke out publicly (Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech is the notorious example) were ostracised. Political parties which raised the issue were thrust beyond the outer margins of debate – the fate of the National Front and the BNP. This self-restraint has now vanished. Practically every day for the past two weeks, another minister has insulted the customs, habits or religious beliefs of Britain’s Muslim minority….
“It is now clear that Jack Straw’s comments on women who wear the veil were not, as seemed likely at the time, the result of some random rumination. He surely set out with the intention of putting in motion a national campaign. In other words, Labour has made the extraordinary decision to place the politics of religious identity at the centre of public discourse, in the same sort of way that Jorg Haider’s Freedom Party does in Austria and Pim Fortuyn’s List Party did in the Netherlands….
“There is a whiff of the lynch mob about the wave of attacks over the past fortnight, and it is no surprise to learn that the new national mood sparked by Jack Straw and sanctioned by Tony Blair has indeed led to a number of assaults on British mosques, including one firebombing. There have also been reports of a sharp rise of physical assaults on Muslims. It is nothing short of appalling that the Blair government has been ready to countenance this change in public culture….
“In the wake of last year’s London atrocity, the Prime Minister promised to engage with the mainstream Muslim community. He never really tried to do so – the ‘working parties’ set up in the wake of the July bombings met just two or three times, they were not listened to, and their recommendations were ignored.
“Now Tony Blair has allowed a campaign that is bound to undermine moderate Muslims and encourage extremism, whether from white supremacist parties like the BNP or within Islam itself. It is quite the nastiest and most irresponsible politics I have seen from a mainstream political party in my life, and we will all pay a horrible price for such cynical opportunism.”
Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail, 21 October 2006