From Al Jazeera.
Category Archives: UK
Epsom man pleads not guilty to race attack at Kingston mosque
A man accused of being part of a gang that allegedly threw beer at and urinated on a mosque after a march against Muslim extremism has pleaded not guilty to two charges.
David Morris, 20, of Elm Way, Epsom, pleaded not guilty to one count of affray and one count of religiously aggravated criminal damage at Kingston Magistrates Court today (April 7). Appearing in court with a shaved head and wearing a light blue polo shirt he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and enter a plea.
The attack is alleged to have happened following a march through Kingston town centre [pictured] against Muslim extremism in November last year. The march had been organised via facebook and during the incident outside the mosque the men are alleged to have also placed bacon on cars outside the building.
Terence Earl, 31, of Aspen Lane, Northolt also pleaded not guilty to the charges. Alfie Wallace, 18, of Hetherington Road, Shepperton; Paul Abley, 24, of Hounslow Road, Shepperton; Karl Matthews, 20, of Brentford High Street and Adam Khalfan, 18, of Feltham Road, Ashford, all declined to enter a plea to the same offences. They will all appear before Kingston Magistrates on May 23 for a committal hearing.
All were granted bail on condition that they do not enter the borough of Kingston.
EDL protester starts jail term for affray
A man accused of launching a “flying kick” at a police officer while at the forefront of trouble at an EDL march in the Black Country was today behind bars.
Thomas Blackwell admitted a charge of affray during the EDL protest in Dudley on July 17 last year and was sentenced to one year in prison. A DVD shown at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday showed Blackwell, aged 25, of Bird Street, Lower Gornal, wearing a white stab vest in the front few rows of protesters at the march as they confronted police.
Judge Michael Challinor told him the DVD showed he had “clearly” been at the forefront of the violence which erupted in Stafford Street on the day. “You attended this demonstration with the intention of causing disorder and violence,” he said. “This is clear from the fact you were wearing protective clothing in the form of a stab vest. In the course of this disorder you tackled a police officer by using a flying kick to his protective shield.”
Judge Challinor said he had considered the fact that Blackwell would lose his job and as a result, his home if sent to prison but added: “This type of violent behaviour so often prevents law-abiding citizens from protesting peacefully.”
Mr Stephen Thomas, prosecuting, told the court Blackwell had been near the front of the group of EDL protesters who had thrown bottles and bits of metal at police, before launching the “flying kick” at a police officer’s riot shield and swearing at him.
The aftermath of a ferocious attack inside a mosque
Hugh Muir speaks to Abdul Wahab of the Redbridge Islamic Centre following the recent attack.
Hit-and-run victim’s family condemn EDL’s use of her photo
The family of a grandmother killed in a hit-and-run have condemned the English Defence League for using her image on placards.
Freda Holt was one of several local faces used by 2,000 EDL protesters during Saturday’s town centre demonstration. The grandmother from Revidge Road, Blackburn, died after being knocked down by speeding unlicensed and uninsured driver Salim Chand last November. Chand, 27, was jailed for nine years. The EDL said it was highlighting “hit-and-runs by Muslims”.
But Freda’s husband Ray Holt, 72, said: “It would have been the very last thing Freda would have wanted. She was all about live and let live. She would have been absolutely horrified. As far as I am concerned he (Salim Chand) was an idiot driver. It’s got nothing to do with him being a Muslim.
“I had no knowledge of it and nobody had approached me to ask. I was in the town centre on Saturday but fortunately left before the protest because I don’t know what I would have done if I’d have seen her picture being used by the EDL.”
On Sunday, the family went to Mass and prayed for Freda and then put flowers on her grave at Pleasington Cemetery to mark what would have been her 71st birthday and Mother’s Day.
Eldest son Richard, 45, said he was shocked when he realised on Monday what had happened.
He said: “As a family all we wanted was justice for our mother regardless of race, colour or creed. The use of my mother’s picture was neither given permission for, or condoned, by us.
“My mother was a devout Catholic and would accept and help anyone, should they require it, which she had done countless times in her life. This is absolutely not what our mother stood for. As a family we do not wish to be linked in any way with EDL or any similar organisation.”
Freda’s daughter Rachel Harling, from Rishton, said she has seen the picture on an EDL website and felt “quite sick”. She said: “It was nothing to do with race or religion. It could have been anyone behind the wheel.”
Paul Houston, the father of 12-year-old Amy Houston, whose image was another of those used by the EDL, has also distanced himself from “extremism”.
Lancashire Telegraph, 6 April 2011
You really do wonder what the EDL leadership have in the place where most people have brains. How could they have failed to anticipate that using photos of road accident victims without permission would cause outrage to the victims’ families and backfire badly on the EDL? It is also difficult to see how this squares with the EDL’s claim that they are against Islam rather than Muslims. Is there perhaps a Qur’anic verse that authorises hit-and-run driving?
Update: Now the story has been taken up by the Daily Mail.
Former soldier who issued mosque bomb threat jailed
A former soldier who threatened to bomb Glasgow Central Mosque has been jailed for 12 months. Neil MacGregor, 38, also said he would execute Muslims on a daily basis unless every mosque in Scotland was closed down. He was originally placed on probation for three years, but breached the order.
MacGregor, of Crieff, made the threats in an email and a series of telephone calls to Strathclyde Police in 2007. Fiscal depute John Malpass told Perth Sheriff Court: “Because of the nature of the threat, senior officers and anti-terrorist officers were notified. Enquiries were made in relation to the source of the emails. The IP address was identified and traced to the accused’s home address. Police attended the Central Mosque and carried out a search which proved negative.”
MacGregor admitted breaching the probation order by disappearing to London after completing only one third of it. Sheriff Foulis, revoking probation and jailing him for a year, said: “It was a matter which the authorities, not surprisingly, took very seriously and reacted to in the manner described.”
When he initially admitted the offence at Glasgow Sheriff Court in 2009, his email was read out which stated:
“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.”
EDL tries to disrupt anti-fascist meeting in Brighton …. and fails miserably
About 30 EDL yobs attacked a Unite Against Fascism meeting at the Friends Meeting House on Tuesday evening, but they failed to even get past the front door.
The meeting was titled In Defence of Multiculturalism in the wake of Cameron’s disgraceful remarks a couple of months ago. Among the speakers were Martin Smith of the UAF Steering Committee and Chris Whitwell of Friends Families and Travellers.
Some good points were made – chiefly that Cameron made the remarks in a desperate attempt to divide communities and divert attention from his government’s slash and burn policies. Questions were asked about Cameron’s right to pronounce that “multiculturalism had failed” given his own monocultural upbringing (unless one includes the drinking culture of the Bullingdon Club!).
I spoke from the Stop the Cuts Coalition, and it was a positive move that the links were made by UAF between the crisis and the rise of far right politics.
The EDL thugs were seen off and the police arrived shortly after. Incredibly, their verdict was that we had provoked the trouble! Another bizarre interpretation of events by, arguably, Britain’s oddest police force.
We finished our meeting, so denying the EDL any claim to have broken it up, and then we left together.
People’s Republic of Hove, 6 April 2011
Via Socialist Unity
Update: See also “Violence at Brighton anti-fascist meeting”, The Argus, 7 April 2011
EDL member charged with arson attack on Stoke mosque was in army
A man charged after a fire at a Stoke-on-Trent mosque was a serving soldier in the Army at the time of the attack. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Simon Beech served with 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment and was discharged from the Army in February.
Mr Beech, of Hartshill Road, Stoke-on-Trent, has been charged with arson with intent to endanger life. Gareth Foster, also of Hartshill Road, has been charged with the same offence. Both men have been granted conditional bail and have been due to appear at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on 10 June.
An MoD spokesman said Mr Beech was in “the early stages of his Army career”.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s ’16 reasons to ban the burqa’
ENGAGE replies to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.
‘Security’ concerns over Camberley mosque are ‘irresponsible scaremongering’, inquiry told
Concerns that minarets overlooking Sandhurst Royal Military Academy pose a security risk have been described as “irresponsible scaremongering”, as a public inquiry considered controversial proposals to demolish a Victorian school and replace it with a purpose-built mosque.
The Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey Bengali Welfare Association is seeking to overturn a decision refusing planning permission for the demolition of a locally listed former primary school in Camberley and the erection of a £3m mosque complete with a domed roof and 30-metre (100ft) minarets in its place.
The contested site, which the association bought in 1996, is in Tory education minister Michael Gove’s constituency. It is also 350 metres away from Sandhurst. The proximity has alarmed a local campaign group, Save Our School, which believes the minarets are a security threat and one of several arguments against the proposals.
But lawyers representing the association on Tuesday rejected such security concerns, describing them as “irresponsible scaremongering”.
Christopher Lockhart-Mummery QC, momentarily breaking off from a scripted opening submission, told the inquiry at Camberley theatre: “I have seen what I regard as utterly irresponsible statements that there is clear view of the Royal Military Academy. It is not remotely and has never been the case.”
He said the current premises, on the A30 London Road, were “grossly unsuitable” for the Muslim congregation’s needs and that the association could “only marvel” at the “spacious facilities meeting precisely the worshipping traditions” of the congregation at a nearby Christian church.
Lockhart-Mummery also said a lack of space meant proper and respectful prayer was “difficult if not impossible”. “We have a gross inequality of opportunity between different racial groups. The council has demonstrably failed to discharge its statutory duty in these respects, plainly because it was wholly unaware of them.”
Should the appeal fail, Lockhart-Mummery said, the association would have no alternative but to “carry on in these grossly inadequate conditions, to the severe detriment of their own, and the wider, community”.
The association has encountered opposition from thousands of residents, many of whom have funded legal representation for Save Our School at the inquiry.
Barrister John Pugh-Smith said in his opening statement: “There is no religious reason for mosque design in the UK to incorporate domes and minarets and to be a naive replica of mosques found in the Indian subcontinent.”
The Save Our School lawyer drew applause from members of the public for condemning the association’s proposals for segregated facilities, saying such “sexist exclusion” ran contrary to the UK government’s gender equality initiatives.
Surrey Heath borough council and Save Our School also claim the mosque would cause significant harm to the conservation area and not positively contribute to the character and appearance of the local environment.
You’ll note that the Save Our Schools lawyer took his arguments directly from Taj Hargey, who wrote: “there is nothing in Islamic theology that legitimises a misogynistic apartheid in the house of God…. There is no Islamic injunction that minarets are intrinsic to mosques.” (He added: “building two twin minaret towers, so close to a renowned military college, is a provocation.”)