Category Archives: Anti-Muslim violence

Reykjavík: final preparations for mosque construction underway

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Head of the Muslim Association of Iceland, Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson, says the final preparations are being made for the design of a mosque, scheduled to be built on a plot of land on Sogamýri, Reykjavík. “We could in reality break ground – symbolically – after the weekend,” he told visir.is yesterday.

The final design will be decided upon in cooperation with the Association of Icelandic Architects.

The mosque has been under discussion in recent days, ever since the leader of the Progressive Party in Reykjavík, Sveinbjörg Birna Sveinbjörnsdóttir, said she wanted to withdraw the allocation of the plot of land to the Muslim Association of Iceland and that the issue should be voted on in a public referendum.

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Pakistani man vows to flee Northern Ireland after race-hate attacks, blaming anti-Islamic atmosphere

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muhammad Asif KhattakA Pakistani man has vowed to flee Northern Ireland after he and a friend were injured in two racially motivated attacks – carried out within a matter of hours.

Less than 24 hours after attending an anti-racism rally in Belfast, friends Muhammad Khattak and Haroon Khan were assaulted and had their north Belfast home set upon by thugs yesterday.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Khattak blamed the atmosphere stirred up by the fallout of an anti-Islamic sermon given by Pastor James McConnell, who was later backed by First Minister Peter Robinson.

In the six months since they moved into their home in Parkmount Street in the north of the city, they said they have suffered constant racial abuse.

Mr Khattak (24) said Peter Robinson’s remarks about not trusting Muslim terrorists “cast suspicion over every Muslim”. And he said the controversial words of Pastor McConnell gave his attackers “the licence” to do what they did. “They have lit the fire in the forest and it is not going to stop,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.

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Michael Piggin trial collapses after jury fails to reach verdicts

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael Piggin graffiti and gun

A teenager accused of plotting a Columbine-inspired massacre at his former school in Loughborough has walked free from court after the collapse of his third trial. The jury in the trial of Michael Piggin, 18, failed to reach a verdict after deliberating for nearly 60 hours over 12 days at the Old Bailey in London.

Prosecutors said immediately afterwards that they would not seek a further retrial of the teenager, who first faced court last October, accused of planning to carry out a murderous attack on his former school, a cinema, a mosque and a council office near his home in the Midlands.

Piggin had earlier pleaded guilty to stockpiling weapons, including petrol bombs and component parts of pipe bombs, but consistently denied he intended to carry out an attack. The collapse of the third trial meant Piggin, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was free to leave the dock of the Old Bailey on Friday afternoon, although he must return to the court on 13 June to be sentenced for possessing explosives.

Over 10 weeks of evidence, the trial heard how Piggin allegedly drew up tactics for what he called “Operation: The New Columbine” in a notebook emblazoned with a Nazi swastika and the face of Che Guevara. The notebook allegedly contained a “hit list” which included his former school, a mosque, a cinema and other buildings among his supposed targets.

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‘Jihad’ against Cadbury? The only threats of violence are against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cadbury MalaysiaThe Daily Mail and Telegraph have both run stories, originating in the Malay Mail, about the indignation expressed at a press conference yesterday by some Muslim leaders in Malaysia over allegations that Cadbury’s chocolate has been found to contain traces of porcine DNA.

The Mail headed its report: “Jihad declared on Cadbury by Malaysian Muslims after pork DNA batches”. The Telegraph originally went with the more neutral “Islamic groups angry at Cadbury Malaysia after two batches found to contain pork DNA”, before deciding this wasn’t hard-hitting enough and amending it to “Malaysian Muslim groups call for jihad on Cadbury after pork traces found in chocolate”.

The shock-horror element in both of these reports is achieved by translating jihad as “holy war” rather than the more accurate term “struggle”, in order to suggest that Cadbury has been threatened with violence. There was in fact a single Muslim spokesperson at the press conference, one Ustaz Masridzi Sat, who spoke about declaring jihad, and I very much doubt that physical attacks on chocolate factories were what he had in mind.

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Britain First stage intimidatory march in Brick Lane

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Britain First march through Brick LaneThe far-right group, Britain First, marched down Brick Lane last night with a large camouflaged car as part of what they called a “Christian patrol”.

The group said on their Facebook page: “Major disturbances follow Britain First Christian patrol in East London. Crowds of Muslims rampage through Brick Lane. Muslim vigilante gangs lock horns with Britain First teams.”

The leader of Britain First, Paul Golding, said that around 20-25 activists had marched up Brick Lane, starting from the Whitechapel Road end and given out leaflets. At the upper end of Brick Lane, Golding said they were confronted with a “baying mob of around 150 Muslims.”

Golding denied that the march was provocative and said that they were there to protect the local community. After the march, Golding said that the activists returned to south London.

He said the matching clothes the activists wore were not uniforms but “activist jackets” and were worn to distinguish Britain First from the “riff-raff” of the English Defence League who behave like “drunken hooligans”. Golding said that the armoured land rover was “not to look macho” but to protect Britain First from attack.

Natasha Daniels said on twitter that she was having a curry on Brick Lane when “some morons with Union Jacks and a tank/car thing came down followed by loads of police.” She said that there was not many people involved in the march and most were “hid in the car” which was large and camouflaged.

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Man arrested over Trowbridge mosque arson threat

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spotted Trowbridge arson threatFollowing complaints to Wiltshire Police about a message posted on the Spotted Trowbridge Facebook page, police in West Yorkshire have charged a man with malicious communication.

David Lord, 27, of Ravenscliffe Avenue, Bradford, West Yorkshire, was arrested and charged by West Yorkshire Police on Tuesday after officers in Wiltshire were alerted to the message. He will now appear at Bradford Magistrates’ Court on June 2.

Police received several complaints about the message, as well as others on the page, which was posted in response to an anonymous post last Friday asking whether there was a mosque in Trowbridge.

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‘Race hate’ arsonists burn down Birmingham community centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ulfah Arts arson

Arsonists have destroyed a Birmingham community centre – home to the country’s first female Muslim band – in a suspected racially-motivated attack.

Ulfah Arts and Media, based at Highgate Craft Centre in Highgate Square, was completely devastated in the 5am blaze yesterday. It is home for The Ulfah Collective, the first practising Muslim female band. The group sings traditional Islamic songs alongside Christian gospel music and once appeared in front of 12,000 fans at Wembley Arena with the late Bee Gee, Robin Gibb.

Ulfah Arts and Media spokeswoman Sarah Javid said she feared the arson attack was racially-aggravated and targeted against the social enterprise’s CEO, Prashant Singh.

“Over the last two months our CEO has been receiving hate mail which has been anti-Islamic,” she said. “He also received a DVD which was full of race hate messages. Mr Singh has no idea why anyone would have a personal vendetta against him or the organisation. But the fire has destroyed everything. It’s destroyed equipment, but also all of our projects, some we have been working on for over a year.”

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Montreal police arrest man during arson attack on Muslim community centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Assahaba Islamic Community Centre vandalisedMONTREAL — Police apprehended a 47-year-old man at a Muslim community centre in the Rosemont neighbourhood early Tuesday morning.

Authorities confirmed that they were forced to use a stun gun after the man resisted arrest. He was caught trying to throw a Molotov Cocktail through a window of the Assahaba Islamic Community Centre on the corner of Belanger and 23rd Avenue.

Police said that the attempted attack was the fifth in just over a month. The man was caught because officers had been staking out the community centre after previous incidents. The man was described as a white Quebecer, with possible links to an extremist organization.

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Call for ‘Muzzer blood’ to be spilled over plan to rebuild Farnworth mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bolton BNP and Frank Whittle
Bolton BNP protesting against the Sughra Mosque development and (right) Frank ‘Muzzer blood’ Whittle

Earlier this month Bolton Council’s planning committee unanimously approved plans by the Sughra Masjid to demolish their existing one-storey place of worship, which has occupied the site since 1987, and replace it with a three-storey building.

Hardly a terrifying example of the creeping Islamification of Farnworth, you might think, but that hasn’t prevented the far right from whipping its supporters up into their usual racist frenzy over the issue.

An online petition against the development has been launched, with the backing of the fascist Bolton Patriot website. So far it has attracted over 500 signatures, along with the usual vituperative abuse of Muslims (“Cannot believe how the western wold allows the scourge of the world race who are so barbaric and full of hatred take over. Absolutely sickens me. I cannot stand what they stand for and don’t even consider them human”).

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EDL member described as future killer by own mother

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael Piggin graffiti and gun

A teenager accused of plotting a “new Columbine” massacre was called a future mass killer by his mother, a court heard.

Michael Piggin allegedly had a hit list of pupils and teachers he wanted to kill. He also plotted to attack a mosque, threatened to murder TV’s David Dickinson and said he wanted to blow up Poundland because “it’s too expensive”.

Piggin’s mother compared him to Adam Lanza who killed 20 US schoolchildren and six staff in Connecticut in 2012, the Old Bailey heard.

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