A man has appeared in court accused of throwing bacon and sausages onto a mosque in Cricklewood. Alexis Garner, of Anson Road, Cricklewood, is charged with racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.
The 31-year-old is claimed to have thrown the pork products over a fence into the Mosque and Islamic Centre in Howard Road. He appeared before Hendon Magistrates Court yesterday and was bailed to return to court on Thursday.
The Sun reports: “Channel 4 yesterday said it will screen a Muslim call to prayer every day during Ramadan – because it is more relevant than the Diamond Jubilee.” The report helpfully adds: “Radical preacher Anjem Choudary, accused of encouraging terrorism, said he welcomed any move to promote Islam.”
The Sun quotes a UKIP spokesman as warning that the decision “will inflame community tension”. With coverage like that in the Sun, it very probably will.
The mere presence of English Defence League (EDL) flash mobs is enough to induce fear without raising a brick or a baton. But new research by the Centre for Fascist Studies at Teesside University shows the EDL online presence is even more vitriolic and disturbing.
It’s the first study of anti-Muslim sentiment in the UK and is based on data from the monitoring and helpline charity Tell Mama where victims can report details of abuse either on the streets or online.
The data amounts to 584 recorded incidents of anti-Muslim hate crime in the year between April 2012 to April 2013. Almost two in every three cases were not reported to police. The majority of cases – 434 incidents – were online abuse: 300 were linked to the far-right movement, and 147 of those were linked to the EDL – a third of all online anti-Muslim incidents.
Leaders at a Liverpool mosque where a suspect package was found today said they feared the incident was aimed at stirring up hatred in the community. Two controlled explosions were carried out after the suspect package – feared to be a bomb – was left at a Liverpool mosque last night.
Police were called to Al Rahma mosque in Mulgrave Street, Toxteth at around 9pm. The force said this morning that no explosive materials were found at the scene but investigations were ongoing.
Muslim graves at a Newport cemetery have been desecrated with racist graffiti.
The vandals used white paint to write “Lee Rigby murder”, “white power” and drew swastikas on four gravestones at Christchurch Cemetery. They also wrote the initials of the British National Party (BNP), the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the National Front (NF).
People visiting nearby graves spoke of their disgust and shock at seeing the painted messages, which were still wet this morning.
South Wales Argus, 30 June 2013
Update: See “Newport Muslim leader’s plea for calm after grave daubing”, South Wales Argus, 2 July 2013
The very welcome ban on hate-mongers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer visiting the UK to join a disgusting publicity stunt planned by the English Defence League predictably had its critics. Equally predictably, one of them was Melanie Phillips.
“What on earth have we come to, after all, when the British Home Secretary is banning people on the basis that they criticise Islam and warn against jihadi violence?”, Phillips demanded indignantly. “Is this not exactly the menacing argument mounted by Islamic extremists, that any condemnation of Islamic extremism is to be banned as ‘Islamophobic’?”
Two English Defence League leaders have been arrested as they attempted to visit the spot where Drummer Lee Rigby was murdered last month.
Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll were detained by police on Saturday on suspicion of obstructing officers in east London. The Metropolitan police said on Friday that anyone trying to march to Woolwich would be arrested and imposed a route for the walk between Hyde Park Corner and Old Palace Yard, opposite the House of Lords.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said on Saturday: “At approximately 11.25am today, two men were arrested outside Aldgate East station for obstructing police. They have been taken to a south London police station.” In a statement posted on the EDL’s Twitter feed, the group said: “Tommy Robinson & Kev Caroll arrested for obstructing the police and carted off.”
Around half of mosques and Muslim centres in Britain have been subjected to Islamophobic attacks since 9/11, academics have warned as the far-right English Defence League prepares to march to the south-London scene of Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder.
The figures are highlighted in a report which also found that the number of anti-Islamic attacks increased by as much as tenfold in the days following the Woolwich attack.
Meanwhile, research by The Independent shows Islamophobic attacks spreading across Britain, with mosques being set alight and Muslims targeted at home in the past month.
Despite the warning signs, a senior Government adviser told The Independent that there remains a “lack of political will” to take on the rise of Islamophobic attacks in Britain. The adviser, who did not want to be named, said that attempts to “tackle this issue – even before Woolwich – struggled to attract buy-in,” with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, identified as the primary source of frustration.
A man threatened to bomb a mosque during a racist rant. Garith Wood yesterday admitted behaving in a racially aggravated manner during the incident on May 9 last year.
Livingston Sheriff Court was told that Wood, 27, made racist comments about a 14-year-old Asian boy near Deans Mosque, Livingston. He then turned his attention to another Asian, Abdu Raman Bismillah, calling him a “black b******”. Part of his hateful tirade included threatening to bomb the Livingston Sunni Islamic Centre and Mosque, the court was told.