Yobs sprayed the words “no mosque here” on the side of a disused bingo hall even though there are no plans to turn it into a Muslim place of worship.
The slogan – on the former Gala bingo hall in Pitsea High Road – is believed to have arisen from rumours put about during May’s elections by far-right groups. The only planning application put forward for the site was a proposal to use it for a car wash, and that was refused by Basildon Council in January.
Extra police patrols are being sent out around a Muslim family centre in Kirkcaldy after it was targeted in a sickening hate crime.
Just hours before the start of Ramadan, the most holy festival in the Muslim calendar, anti-Islamic grafitti was spray painted on walls around the Kirkcaldy Islamic Centre in the town’s St Mary’s Road. And five vehicles belonging to members of the centre, where hundreds of Muslims go to pray as well as take part in many other community activities, were also targeted on Monday night. Crosses were painted on number plates, windows and on a bonnet.
Police in Kirkcaldy have put on extra patrols in the area and have spoken to the centre management about improving their security. And they have appealed to members of the public to report any information or suspicious behaviour in the area.
A man was given a conditional discharge after admitting throwing bacon and sausages over a fence at a mosque. Appearing at Hendon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday last week, Alexis Garner, 31, of Anson Road, Willesden Green, admitted throwing the meat on Wednesday, June 26, as “a cry for help”.
The court heard Garner purchased bacon and sausages from a shop, then threw the meat over the fence at the Mosque and Islamic Centre in Howard Road, Cricklewood, at 5.46am.
A man who attends the mosque arrived at 8am and saw the meat, following which police were contacted. Brent officers carried out enquiries and from CCTV footage at the shop where the meat was purchased, they were able to identify Garner and made the arrest.
An English Defence League supporter who shouted abuse and used threatening behaviour during a demonstration in Walsall has been handed a criminal anti-social behaviour order after narrowly avoiding a jail term due to health problems.
Jack Beasley travelled from Durham to take part in the protest which brought Walsall town centre to a standstill on September 29 last year, Walsall Magistrates Court heard yesterday. Trouble flared, in Leicester Street, during the rally. Miss Jo Taylor, prosecuting, said: “By the time the afternoon approached things were clearly getting out of hand.”
She said Beasley had been wearing a black EDL top and was identified on CCTV raising his arms and chanting. She said other people around him were throwing ‘missiles’ at police and Beasley looked as though he had picked up some items and was making a throwing action in various photos. He denied throwing any objects. Miss Taylor told the court: “As you can see from some photos, he is on the frontline behaving in an aggressive manner, chanting at police.”
A Facebook user who urged people to burn down Grimsby’s mosque – to put the town on the map “big time” – claims he has “lost everything”. Steven Ballard claimed he had lost his job, his girlfriend and his child because of the furore caused by his “menacing” comment. Ballard, 27, of Stainton Drive, Grimsby, admitted sending an offensive or menacing message on May 23.
Rebecca Dolby, prosecuting, told Grimsby magistrates that police searched an open group forum on Facebook linked to the Grimsby division of the English Defence League. Ballard posted a message at about 10pm following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich. It read: “Burn the mosque down the end of Legsby Avenue. That will tell the clowns in charge in this country that we ain’t taking this s*** and it will start a nationwide action going. Grimsby will be on the map big time then.”
He later told police there were Muslim communities in every town and city – and made reference to the recent police activity in Saxilby. He claimed Muslims had “got it easy” and that, “if they go to prison, they will get it easy”. Ballard claimed he was not racist and that he was not aware of damage caused to the mosque. He claimed that, if a Muslim were killed, he would have it on his conscience but insisted: “We are walked over.”
An anti-mosque protester avoided jail after he was found to be carrying cocaine following a street demonstration. Warren Faulkner also offered to “sort out” his differences with a police officer when they clashed during the protest in Millfield, Sunderland.
Newcastle Crown Court was told Faulkner was among a group demonstrating about plans to build a mosque in St Marks Road. The 42-year-old, of Webb Avenue, Westlea, Seaham, was then spotted by an officer in a back lane shouting “come on, come on, bring it on”.
The court heard Faulkner tried to trip up the officer, who was separating the right-wing demonstrators from the anti-fascist group. As he was being detained, Webb told the officer: “I will give you my phone number, and we can sort this out without your uniform on”.
Channel 4 News reports on the aftermath of the burning down of the al-Rahma Islamic centre in Muswell Hill.
A new survey by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London shows just how wrong public opinion can be on key social issues such as crime, benefit fraud and immigration.
Among the findings is that the public on average believe that Muslims make up 24% of the population while Christians account for 34%. The actual figures for England & Wales are 5% and 59% respectively. The public also think that 31% of the population are immigrants, when the official figure is 13%.
The RSS recommends that “politicians need to be better at talking about the real state of affairs of the country, rather than spinning the numbers” and “the media has to try and genuinely illuminate issues, rather than use statistics to sensationalise”.
Over at the Daily Telegraph, Con Coughlin draws the lessons from the departure of Abu Qatada to Jordan:
“While the Government’s focus is rightly centred on tightening up our liberal immigration laws, there is another area that requires urgent attention. The majority of this [sic] mosques in this country preach the traditional virtues of Islam, but there remains a minority that continue to subscribe to a more radical agenda, and are highly influential in persuading impressionable young Muslims – many of them British citizens who cannot be deported to places like Jordan – to take up the cause of jihad against the West.”
Perhaps Coughlin could provide us with a list of these mosques? Indeed, if he knows for a fact that such preaching is going on in the UK, doesn’t he have an obligation to inform the police? Or could it just possibly be that he has no evidence whatsoever for this inflammatory claim and made the whole thing up?
A volunteer soldier posted a comment on Facebook suggesting racist violent revenge should be taken on the day drummer Lee Rigby was murdered.
Mark Tonner wrote “Get the boys together we need to paint the town red with Muslim blood”. He was arrested after a member of the public complained on the Lancashire Police website about what Tonner had written.
Tonner, 36, of Ashton Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to sending an offensive message. He was bailed for pre-sentence reports and will be sentenced at a later date by Blackpool magistrates.