Category Archives: Far right racists

Man charged with hate crime for threatening Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A self-proclaimed white supremacist with a history of threats and harassment was charged under the state’s hate crime statute after he allegedly threatened a young Muslim woman with a knife while she was waiting in line for services at the Seattle Indian Health Board.

According to charging papers, Eric Lee Garner walked up to the woman on July 1, pointed at her head scarf and said, “you Muslim people scare people when you wear things like that!” He followed up with other derogatory remarks.

The woman, who was holding her six-month-old son, tried to reason with the 24-year-old Auburn man by saying that her “her clothing does not make her a bad person,” court documents said. When the insults didn’t stop, prosecutors said, the woman backed away from Garner and tried to shield her son from him.

Garner then cursed at the woman, got in her face and pulled out a large sheathed knife, court papers said. Garner told the woman he was going to “cut” the woman and her baby with the knife, charging documents said.

A health board employee then grabbed the knife and retreated behind the counter, prosecutors said. Garner jumped over the counter, grabbed the knife and ran out of the building.

Seattle Times, 7 July 2009

Update:  See “Auburn man sentenced in attack of Muslim woman, baby”, KOMO News, 23 April 2010

East Lancashire BNP activists won’t be charged over anti-Muslim leaflets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP heroin leaflet

Three British National Party activists arrested last year in connection with campaign leaflets have been released from police bail.

The three, a 41-year-old man from Nelson, a 44 year-old man from Darwen, and a 57-year-old man from Nelson were all arrested in November on suspicion of the publication and distribution of written material intended to stir up racial hatred and the possession of racially inflammatory material.

The swoops were in connection with leaflets which claimed Muslims were responsible for the heroin trade.

Lancashire police have now told the three they will not face any charges.

A 53-year-old man from Preston arrested on suspicion of the same offences has been re-bailed until later this month.

Burnley Citizen, 7 July 2009

FBI investigating death of Muslim leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yermo Nazi graffiti1The FBI is investigating the death of a Muslim leader whose body was found inside a burned home in Yermo that had recently been spraypainted with racial epithets and Nazi symbols. Authorities have deemed the June 27 fire suspicious, but said it could take weeks before they are able to determine how the blaze started.

Neighbors who reported the fire told 911 dispatchers they heard a loud boom – almost like an exploding propane tank – just before the fire erupted. When firefighters doused the flames 40 minutes later, they found the body of 51-year-old Imam Ali Mohammed inside the East Yermo Road house he had moved his family out of last month.

Mohammed recently left Yermo for Victorville because he was being harassed, said CAIR spokeswoman Munira Syeda. Coupled with the anti-Muslim graffiti and the fact that Mohammed’s Yermo mosque was torched by arsonists two years ago, CAIR attorney Ameena Qazi asked the FBI to investigate “the possibility of a bias motive in his death.”

San Bernardino Sun, 7 July 2009

Police fear far-right terror attack

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command fears that right-wing extremists will stage a deadly terrorist attack in Britain to try to stoke racial tensions, the Guardian has learned. Senior officers say it will be a “spectacular” that is designed to kill. The counter-terrorism unit has redeployed officers to increase its monitoring of the extreme right’s potential to stage attacks.

Commander Shaun Sawyer told a meeting of British Muslims concerned about the danger to their communities that police were responding to the growing threat.

“There is an increased possibility of violence from the far right. There is a trend,” said one senior source, adding that the ideology of the violent right was driven by “people who don’t like immigration, people who don’t like Islam. We’re seeing a resurgence of anti-semitism as well.”

The meeting at which Sawyer spoke was staged by the Muslim Safety Forum, whose chair, Abdurahman Jafar, said: “Muslims are the first line of victims in the extreme right’s campaign of hate and division and they make no secret about that. Statistics show a strong correlation between the rise of racist and Islamophobic hate crime and the ascendancy of the BNP.”

Guardian, 7 July 2009

Paul Ray admits to BNP links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The far right group responsible for Saturday’s demo against Islamic extremism in Birmingham has revealed its opposition to all Muslims practising their faith in Britain. In an interview with Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg on Talksport last night, spokesman Paul Ray also admitted their links with the BNP.

As we revealed yesterday, the protest was organised by the English (and Welsh) Defence League. Despite the group’s claim to be non-political, it’s emerged on Indymedia that their website was set up by Chris Renton, a BNP activist who lives in Weston-super-Mare. When EDL spokesman Ray was quizzed about this, he acknowledged Renton’s involvement, but insisted, “people’s political views are their own affair.”

During the course of the interview, it became apparent that Ray’s own view of Islamic extremism isn’t limited to suicide bombers and hook handed preachers of hate. He argued that the Qu’ran teaches all its advocates to wage jihad or holy war in non-Muslim countries, and acknowledged that on this basis, all devout or practising Muslims in Britain, are – in his words – “at war with our country.” When pressed, he said: “They’re ultimately engaged in converting our country to an Islamic state … that is the religious mandate of the Qu’ran that all Muslims must adhere to.”

The Stirrer, 7 July 2009

Update:  See also Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, 8 July 2009

Psychiatric tests for mosque bomb threat man

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Neil MacGregorA man who threatened to blow up Glasgow Central Mosque has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment. Neil MacGregor also threatened to kill a Muslim a day until all mosques in Scotland were closed.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, Sheriff Andrew Mackie told the 36-year-old he appeared to be suffering from mental illness. McGregor will appear again in four weeks time after being assessed at Murray Royal Hospital in Perth.

MacGregor admitted telephoning and e-mailing Strathclyde Police to make the threats from a flat in Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow, between January and February 2007. The court heard that the e-mail read:

“I’m a proud racist and National Front member. We as an organisation have decided to deal with the current threat from Muslims in our own British way, like our proud ancestors. Our demands are very small. Close all mosques in Scotland. If our demands aren’t met by next Friday, we’ll kidnap one Muslim and execute him or her on the internet, just like they did to our Ken Bigley.”

MacGregor then followed up the e-mail with a call threatening to blow up Central Mosque.

Ordering McGregor to undergo a psychiatric assessment, Sheriff Mackie told him: “It has been clear for some time your mental health has been causing concern. This may be related to you having previously served in the forces, although doubt has arisen as to whether you actually served in a combat zone.”

BBC News, 3 July 2009

Meanwhile the Financial Times reports that Sir Norman Bettison, chief constable of West Yorkshire police, has told a security conference in London: “There is a growing right-wing threat, not just Al-Qaeda.” And a spokeswoman for Searchlight is quoted as saying that police forces were paying increased attention to the threat but courts too often dismissed those caught as deluded loners. “Far-right terrorism is a serious problem. The courts have not always treated it so,” she said.

A setback in the struggle against the Islamification of the West

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Londonistan protestOver at his Lionheart blog, Paul Ray relates the sad tale of the mass anti-Muslim demo that wasn’t. It seems that one Dave Shaw had summoned like-minded patriots to join an “anti-extremist protest through the heart of Londonistan” last Saturday.

Alas, it was not to be. Members of Ray’s grandly titled English and Welsh Defence League turned up at the appointed meeting place for the demonstration, outside a pub at Trafalgar Square (see picture), only to find that they were the sole participants at the event.

According to Paul Ray: “With a no-show from ‘Dave Shaw’ and his group members, who all said they were going to be turning up on the day to protest for the sake of their country, no one really knew what we should do next, or where we should go to protest because it was not our organised event. After a few conversations it was decided that we would travel to Whitechapel and protest outside the East London Mosque, and take some group photographs.”

Unfortunately, backward elements within the English and Welsh Defence League proved inadequate to the task. As Ray recounts indignantly:

“At this point sadly, there were deserters amongst the ranks, who chose to entertain themselves in Covent Garden rather than sticking in the ranks with their brothers, and entering enemy territory with the rest of us, as part of the group who had travelled in to protest against Islamic extremists for the sake of their country.

“Desertion is one of the very worst forms of betrayal in the armed forces, with a prison sentence for those who choose to take that path and if we look back to the First World War, deserters were shot for their betrayal against their countrymen.”

So poor Paul Ray was left to march through the East End with what appears to be about a dozen of his mates.

Update:  See also Barthlomew’s Notes on Religion, 2 July 2009

Belfast Islamic Centre receives far-right racist threats

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Members of a south Belfast Islamic community centre are in fear of being attacked after it was targeted by a threatening racist letter from a loyalist far-right organisation this week.

The Belfast Islamic Centre on Wellington Park was among organisations, businesses and politicians in south Belfast that have received racist threats over the last few days.

The Islamic Centre, established in 1978 by a group of Muslims from the local community, received a threatening letter on Monday claiming to be from a loyalist far-right organisation stating: “Keep Northern Ireland for white British people.”

Muhammad al-Qaryooti, the centre’s director, said the letter was extremely racist. “The letter said they had ‘no sympathy for foreigners — get out of the Queen’s country’,” said Mr al-Qaryooti.

Belfast Telegraph, 1 July 2009

More hysteria about Sharia courts

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sharia Law CivitasAt least 85 Islamic sharia courts are operating in Britain, a study claimed yesterday. The astonishing figure is 17 times higher than previously accepted.

The tribunals, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles. They lay down judgments which can be given full legal status if approved in national law courts. However, they operate behind doors that are closed to independent observers and their decisions are likely to be unfair to women and backed by intimidation, a report by independent think-tank Civitas said.

The Civitas study said the Islamic courts should no longer be recognised under British law. Its director Dr David Green said: “The reality is that for many Muslims, sharia courts are in practice part of an institutionalised atmosphere of intimidation, backed by the ultimate sanction of a death threat.”

The Muslim Council in Britain condemned the study for “stirring up hatred”. A spokesman said: “Sharia councils are perfectly legitimate. There is no evidence they are intimidating or discriminatory against women. The system is purely voluntary so if people don’t like it they can go elsewhere.”

Daily Mail, 29 June 2009

It comes as no surprise to find that the”expert” behind the Civitas report is our old friend Denis MacEoin, author of the notorious and discredited Policy Exchange report The Hijacking of British Islam.

We were about to suggest that if MacEoin wants to write fiction he should stick to his day job as a novelist, but apparently that hasn’t been going too well either.

Update:  See also ENGAGE, 29 June 2009

Further update:  Predictably, MacEoin’s report finds favour with both the British National Party (“Get your sensational copy of Sharia Law or ‘One Law For All’? from Excalibur now!”) and the National Secular Society.

MCB misrepresented

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Letter in the Jewish Chronicle, 26 June 2009:

Your article reporting a claim that the Muslim Council of Britain and Muslims “snubbed” a briefing of a multi-faith initiative designed to formulate a co-ordinated response to the BNP (Muslims snub drive against BNP, JC June 19) is incorrect and misleading.

No formal invitation was received from Fiyaz Mughal or his company, Faith Matters. If it had been, the MCB would have considered it.

It is extraordinary that the MCB has been wrongly characterised in this light, given the work we have done to challenge the common threat we face from the far right.

We have worked with anti-fascist groups and we ourselves launched a campaign in British mosques to raise awareness of the need to fight fascism.

Moreover, we have long been advocating a co-ordinated strategy of all faiths. In fact, days before the June 4 European and local elections, the MCB invited faith leaders, including the newly elected President of the Board of Deputies, Vivian Wineman, to be part of a joint statement that called for unity of all faith communities in condemning all those who seek to divide our society.

May I assure your readers that the Muslim Council of Britain and British Muslims are ever ready to work with British Jews, our cousins in faith, to seek the common good, and foster greater understanding between our two communities.

We can start by tackling the weekly drip-feed of misrepresentation and suspicion of Muslims and the MCB that is presented in your paper.

Murtaza Shibli,
Public Affairs and Media Officer,
Muslim Council of Britain
PO Box 57330, London E1