A racist thug downed more than 15 pints and numerous shots before abusing Asian taxi drivers and smashing a taxi window.
When police asked Jamie Takle how he thought the drivers felt about being racially abused, he replied: “To be honest I vote BNP – what does that tell you? They should all go back to their own country.”
Takle, of Aldwick Avenue, Hartcliffe, had been so aggressive on the night in question that a police officer had to spray CS gas in his face to arrest him.
A Gainsborough man who plastered his front window with vile anti-Islamic hate literature has been jailed for a year. Darren Conway, a self-confessed supporter of right-wing organisations, was given a 12-months’ sentence at Lincoln Crown Court.
The court was told on Tuesday that carer Conway had covered the front window of his ground floor flat in Heaton Street in Gainsborough with 17 photographs and posters. Many were offensive – attacking both the prophet Mohammed and the Muslim religion.
Conway, 44, had denied displaying the religiously aggravated hate material on April 16 last year. But he was convicted following a short trial earlier this year, when sentencing was postponed for reports to be prepared.
Judge Michael Heath told Conway: “To describe the material you put in your window as grossly offensive is an understatement. There is no place in a civilised society for conduct of that sort and the only sentence I can justify for it is an immediate custodial sentence.”
A hardcore of far-right supporters in the UK appears to believe violent conflict between different ethnic, racial and religious groups is inevitable, and that it is legitimate to prepare even for armed conflict, according to a new report.
The study, From Voting to Violence? Rightwing Extremists in Modern Britain, by Matthew Goodwin, of the University of Nottingham, and Jocelyn Evans, of Salford University, was launched at Chatham House on Thursday. The report questioned more than 2,000 supporters of “radical-right” and “far-right” groups and found that many endorsed violence, with a “hostile inner core” apparently willing to plan for and prepare for attacks.
“What we have got here is a group of people who self-identify as supporters of the far right and who are, to quite a large extent, backing ideas about preparing for violence and appear to view violence as a justifiable political strategy,” said Goodwin, who is a specialist in far-right politics.
The new report From Voting to Violence? Far Right Extremism in Britain by Matthew Goodwin and Jocelyn Evans can now be viewed online. We reproduce the section of the report examining the views of BNP and UKIP voters on Muslims and Islam.
Islamic students at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) are pressuring the faculty to provide a prayer room after the school’s “meditation room” was closed. But the school board is insisting that the University is a secular institution and has no obligation to provide space for religious activities.
According to HvA Rector Jet Bussemaker, the university decided to close the meditation room after it was commandeered by Muslim students as a prayer room.
An HvA spokesperson said: “This is not a mosque. The largest mosque in Amsterdam is just a 10 minute walk from here. Anyone who really feels they have to pray can walk to the mosque. The students also walk round the corner to get a cup of coffee or a sandwich.”
I wonder who posted this on the EDL’s Facebook page. Obviously someone who can spell and has a basic command of grammar. Which rules out 99.9% of the EDL membership.
The protest in Kingston that preceded the attack on the mosque
A member of a hooded mob that attacked Kingston mosque hung from the front of the building and tried to pull parts of it off as the violence raged, a court has heard.
Nine men accused of the attack on November 21, 2010, are currently on trial at Kingston Crown Court to deny the charges against them. The attack came hours after a peaceful English Defence League (EDL) rally.
During the violence, 20 to 30 men with their faces covered waved pieces of wood, urinated beneath the minaret and laid bacon on a car, the court heard. The jury have been shown photos of the aftermath which include parts of the sign above the mosque entrance which had been ripped down.
On-line objections to a proposed Islamic community centre in Lynn are being vetted for racist or inflammatory content.
One objector contacted the Lynn News after his comments about an application to change the use of a former pub in London Road were removed from West Norfolk Council’s website. The objector, who asked to remain anonymous, said his comments were phrased politely and were not abusive or threatening in any way.
A council spokesman replied that objections to the application relating to the former Queen’s Arms pub were being vetted by council officers after inappropriate comments were received.
Mark Steel casts a critical eye over Theresa May’s visit to Jordan.
A member of the English Defence League (EDL) has appeared in court charged with making religiously-aggravated threats to a Muslim taxi driver.
Charles Dickie, aged 23, of Tennyson Road, in Daventry, appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he denied making religiously or racially motivated verbal threats to the driver during an altercation in the town on Friday afternoon.
Dickie, who is believed to be a prominent local member of the EDL, pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and to smashing a police phone while in custody.
The court was told Dickie was wearing an EDL T-shirt while walking along Brook Street, in Daventry, on Friday afternoon, and began pointing to emblems on the front and back of his T-shirt as he approached the Asian taxi driver. He is accused of telling the taxi driver he was “not welcome here” before allegedly launching a tirade of abuse at him, including expletives and racist terms.