Racist yobs scrawled graffiti on the side of a mosque. The offensive slogan was daubed on the side of the Markazi Jamia Masjid Mosque, on Grange Street.
The Central neighbourhood police team (NPT) arrested an 18-year-old man from Darnley this afternoon. Officers believe another suspect was also involved in the attack which happened on April 20.
Anyone with information should contact the NPT on 101.
Police have quashed rumours circulated by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) that paedophile grooming gangs are operating in Redditch.
Speaking ahead of a planned demonstration by the group in the town on Saturday, Superintendant Adrian Pass said there was no evidence to back up the claims.
Saturday’s demonstration will be the first by the group in Redditch and is expected to attract around 150 demonstrators. However Supt Pass said there would be a robust police presence in the town to deal with any disorder and allow members of the community to go about their business.
He said: “There is no evidence to suggest Islamic grooming or any other kind of sexual targeting of young girls by gangs is happening in Redditch. If the EDL, or anyone else for that matter, has hard evidence of any other illegal activities of this nature in the area then they should come forward and tell us. They have not done so and we have no information whatsoever to suggest that there is a wider problem in Redditch or anywhere else in North Worcestershire.”
The English Defence League has latched onto the decision to ban the Norwich Reformed Church from council premises as a result of a complaint about their distribution of the publication “Why Not Islam” written by the church’s pastor the Rev Alan Clifford.
The EDL has announced that it will be holding a demonstration in Norwich in October to express its solidarity with Clifford, provoking the usual outburst of Islamophobic bile from EDL supporters (“Sick ov satanic islam get out our country!”, “what can be done to stop islam when the government, councils and police protect it”, “what has our country come to the goverment must be gettin a pay off from these muslim extremist”, “Are you People in the UK not going to fight this????? Your letting the muslims take over your Church!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!! WHO IS YOUR CITY COUNCIL????”). The EDL has also promoted Clifford’s “Why Not Islam” diatribe on its Facebook page.
Nearly 88,000 racist incidents were recorded in Britain’s schools between 2007 and 2011, the BBC has found.
Data from 90 areas shows 87,915 cases of racist bullying, which can include name calling and physical abuse. Birmingham recorded the highest number of incidents at 5,752, followed by Leeds with 4,690.
In response to the local authority figures, obtained under a Freedom of Information request, the Department for Education said racism needed to be “rooted out”.
Today Liberty announced it is intervening in the European Court of Human Rights case concerning the criminalisation of face coverings in France.
New research shows that that there is a link between the banning of the veil in France and increased levels of hostility towards veiled Muslim women.
The Research from the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester suggests that the veil ban stigmatises veiled Muslim women as “criminals” and fosters Muslim “otherness”. Even if not explicitly inciting hate-motivated violence, the law in its application contributes to a climate of intolerance of Islam in the West.
Irene Zempi, who led the study, will present her research on Islamophobia at a Departmental Research Seminar at the University of Leicester tommorrow.
British Freedom (as the British Freedom Party has been renamed, because BFP is “too closely sounding to BNP”) reports that its executive council has held a meeting with the English Defence League leaders to discuss future political plans.
BF chairman Paul Weston will be attending an “SIOE (Stop the Islamisation of America)” event in New York on 11 September along with newly appointed vice-chairmen Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carroll. Presumably this is the SION conference to “fight blasphemy laws under the Sharia Islamic supremacist war on free speech” announced by Pamela Geller a couple of months ago, at which “English politician and freedom fighter Paul Weston” is an advertised speaker. According to the BF report: “This will be a high-profile visit with excellent opportunities to publicise British Freedom internationally.”
“The Baroness has inadvertently and quite clumsily given her full support to the far right and Islamophobes who are looking to peddle misinformation and hate based on religion.”
Mohammed Ansar replies to comments made by Sayeeda Warsi in her Evening Standard interview.
Over the past few days, Britain has been preoccupied with the prosecution and imprisonment of nine Muslim men (eight Pakistanis and one Afghani) on charges of being part of a child sex exploitation ring. Much has been said about the religious and ethnic background of the defendants, not to mention their victims, who were all white minors suffering from social problems, to the point that all issues became tangled up and intertwined; criminal considerations, religious and ethnic backgrounds and racial sensitivities. The result was heated discussions that mostly inclined towards unfair generalization, the promotion of a stereotyped image of Islam and false accusations against it.
Osman Mirghani analyses the response to the Rochdale “grooming” case.
Three people were arrested as far right-groups were accused by police of using diversionary tactics to promote their message. The British National Party organised simultaneous protests in Rochdale and Heywood, Greater Manchester, over a child sex grooming case.