Across the UK, serious violent racial attacks are still on the increase, as are incidents of persistent “low-level” harrassment – of people, their homes, and businesses.
Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence
SSP backs Muslim Association of Britain London demonstration
The Scottish Socialist Party Executive last night unanimously agreed to support the call by the Muslim Association of Britain for an all Britain demonstration on 24th September in support of civil liberties, support for the victims of the London bombings, the condemnation of terrorism and in solidarity with the Muslim community in Britain.
Two of the SSP’s MSPs, Colin Fox and Tommy Sheridan will speak at public meetings in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the run up to the demonstration.
Colin Fox, SSP national convenor, today highlighted the headlong assault on civil liberties by the New Labour government since the July 7th London bombings and the massive rise in anti Muslim racism that has swept the UK in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
Religious hate crimes, mostly against Muslims, have risen six-fold in London since the bombings, figures show. There were 269 religious hate crimes in the three weeks after 7 July, compared with 40 in the same period of 2004.
Racist attacks in Scotland have risen by almost a quarter since the London bombings, according to police figures. There were 438 incidents reported from 7 July to the end of the month. That was up by 79 on last year, with 64 of those directly linked to the bombings.
Colin said today: “The SSP unequivocally denounced the terrorist bombs in London immediately after the attacks and we do so again today. These were acts of barbarism that have no place in society and the fact that amongst those killed were several devout Muslims shows that the bombers were in no way a part of the Muslim community a whole.
“The headlong rush into repressive legislation by the government must be resisted by all progressive forces in society; repression will never defeat terrorism as 30 years of history in Northern Ireland shows. The legislation the government is proposing is absolutely draconian and the SSP will be joining with the Muslim Association of Britain and other organisations in opposing this grave threat to our civil liberties.
“We stand together with the Muslim community in opposing the wave of racism and anti Muslim violence that has swept the country following the bombings in London. The SSP calls on all it’s members and supporters to make their voice heard in opposition to racism and Islamophobia and against the draconian measures being put forward by the New Labour government.”
Anti-Muslim hate crime on rise in Wales
A Muslim woman has described her fear during a racist attack on her Cardiff home, as a UK-wide study into the effects of hate crime is launched.
The £100,000 Victim Support research project aims to develop new guidelines and support for victims of hate and race crime. It comes as Muslims in Wales face rising levels of violence and intimidation after the London bombings. In July, animal parts and a racist letter were left at a Cardiff mosque. And on Wednesday, a Muslim woman, who did not want to be identified, told BBC Wales how her home had been attacked last week.
She said: “We were sitting in our living room when we heard this man shouting outside our door. He was throwing things, picking up stones from our front garden and throwing them at our door and our window. And then he smashed a section of our double-glazed window. He was shouting [a series of abusive names]. It was quite scary, because we didn’t know what he had. My niece was sleeping in the front room.
“We don’t feel secure at all. When you are in the house you are always fearing whether someone will come in or try and force their way in. They can do anything, they can put things in our letter boxes. And when you go out, you are always paranoid, always looking around and people do give you funny looks anyway, especially since the London bombings.
“You kind of think ‘I shouldn’t wear traditional clothing just in case somebody makes a comment, I’d rather fit in with the crowd and look more westernised’ and I don’t like doing that. I’m British but I’m also Pakistani. I’m Muslim and that’s my culture.”
Asians hurt in attack
Asian teenagers violently assaulted by racist thugs in a mindless reprisal for the London bombings were not even followers of Islam.
The revelation came as Sutton police disclosed the vicious revenge assault on the five innocent Asians who were sitting in Gillian Park in Sutton Common Road on Friday, July 29. The attack left one victim with a broken jaw needing a metal plate and stitches above his eye, and another with six stitches in his lip. Two more victims were treated for cuts, bruises and swellings in hospital.
Detective Inspector Michael Smith, of the Sutton police community safety unit, said: “This was an appalling unprovoked attack, based on ignorance. We are absolutely sure this was a reprisal attack. The attackers in Sutton were accusing their victims of being responsible for the bombings in London. They thought anyone who had dark skin would be Muslim.”
How to nuke Mecca
“Muslim survivalists will only force the end to the terrorist activities springing up from amongst them when made to pay a terrible price. One ‘terrible price’ currently under debate is a nuclear attack on Mecca should any 9/11 scale attack (or larger) occur on US soil. I am in favor of such planning in the event of a catastrophic strike against America, because I believe the burden of loss needs to be shifted decidedly to fundamental Muslims themselves (and what they value most) if there is to be any hope of ending all this madness. To yield to Islamists’ demands and take the option off the table would be strategically stupid….
“But as has been pointed out by Robert Spencer, nuking Mecca could also be seen by Islamists as a weak action and could serve to unify Muslims and increase Jihad. But this is only true if not done properly and the city is left salvageable within a few years. Once devoted Muslims carry out their next major strike on America, the Mecca plan should be carried out without hesitation or warning. No Hiroshima class atomic wimp-weapon will do, only the 1,000 times more powerful hydrogen fusion device will work for this important job…. The strike is then repeated every 5 years or so if any kind of clean-up is attempted. Medina needs one too, to prevent Arabs from declaring the transference of the holy site to the secondary location.”
Vernon Richards at FaithFreedom.org, 6 August 2005
More on Outrage! and Qaradawi
Further to Outrage’s widely circulated, but entirely false, accusation that Yusuf al-Qaradawi called for the Crown Prince of Qatar to be stoned to death, anyone who wants an illustration of the sort of racist bigotry provoked by Outrage’s Islamophobic propaganda should take a look at the discussion of the Outrage press release at Gay.com.
A thread entitled “More Muslim savagery” contains this exchange of views:
“Is it just me or is anyone else sick to death of islam and it being constantly on our news and current affairs progs??? The murderers who placed those bombs on the London tubes and buses have certainly achieved one thing : to barrage us with endless islamic bullshit.”
“I totally agree with you. All the late night chat shows are now propoganda about how peaceful and tolerant Islam is!? If you believe that you’ll believe anything! Like that programme fronted by terry Christian on C4 in the week, ‘Sharia TV’, where we have to sit and listen to a load of Islamic (so called) moderates telling us how wonderful Islam is!? It makes me sick. Now this is a Christian country (at the moment) why not some late night programmes about Christianity or Judaism for a change instead of all this Islamic rubbish??????”
Another thread features the following exchange:
“Why don’t we set up a stoning of our own. Grab as many Moslems as you can find, take them to Trafalgar Square and announce that they will be publicly stoned for some trumped up charge, say adultary, then go down to Brighton and collect a few bucket load of stones and invite the audience to chuck a stone for Allah!… I firmly believe that Moslems clearly have an execution fetish and need help for it. Hangings, stonings, beheadings, whippings all sounds kinky to me!!!! Why the hell don’t these advocates of execution and torture get themselves off to the nearest rent boy who will fulfill their fetish, get a bloody good whipping and leave the rest of us alone! in peace?”
“Robert, dear, what self-respecting rent boy would want to provide Muslims a service? Anyway, goats are more up their street.”
VA Muslim attacked by men shouting racist slurs
A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on law enforcement authorities to treat an assault this morning on a Virginia Muslim woman as a hate crime.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that a 23-year-old Muslim woman, who is 8 months pregnant and wears and Islamic head scarf, said she was out for her morning walk in Arlington, Va., when three white men in a pick-up truck began screaming anti-Muslim and racist slurs at her. According to the victim, the men shouted, “You terrorist b*tch, go back to your country. . .You n*gger b*tch.” (The woman is African-American.) The truck drove away and then returned as the woman continued on her walk. One of the men, who was wearing military-style clothing, allegedly got out of the vehicle and began shoving the woman and preventing her from moving away. During the assault, he shouted, “You terrorist b*tch. . . We’re going to kick your a*s. . . you’re nothing.” The other men then called the attacker back to the truck and it sped off.
“We believe these types of incidents are the direct result of the growing level of virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric Americans are exposed to on the Internet, in newspaper editorial pages and on radio talk shows,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “Our nation’s political and religious leaders must begin to challenge Islamophobic hate-mongers.” Hooper noted that a Washington, D.C., radio talk show host was recently suspended without pay for stating repeatedly that “Islam is a terrorist organization.” He added that an Illinois man was arrested just last Friday for threatening to bomb CAIR’s Capitol Hill headquarters. In July, a national council of American Muslim religious scholars issued a “fatwa,” or formal Islamic legal ruling, against terrorism and religious extremism. That fatwa has been endorsed by some 200 Islamic groups, leaders and institutions.
Race attacks show ‘low’ increase
Racist attacks in Scotland have risen by almost a quarter since the London bombings, according to police figures. There were 438 incidents reported from 7 July to the end of the month. That was up by 79 on last year, with 64 of those directly linked to the bombings. Senior officers said they were glad the increase was “relatively low” and that the figures showed people had adopted a mature attitude to the atrocities.
Anti-Muslim backlash goes on
A month after the London bombings, police forces across the country are reporting rising levels of racial incidents.
British Muslims feel backlash after bomb attacks
“You filthy Muslim dogs. You will be torched this Friday. Many Muslim pigs will burn,” the hand-scrawled note reads.
At a recently vandalised mosque in the east of Britain’s capital, a shocked 65-year-old Siddique Ali handles one example of hate mail targeting British Muslims after the deadly bomb attacks on London’s transport system on 7 July.
“We are afraid,” said Ali, a member of the committee which runs the mosque. “These people are giving us warnings. But if they came in front of us we could give a reply or try to understand, but they are not coming.”