Category Archives: UK

Gang members admit killing Ekram Haque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ekram HaqueTwo teenage members of a “happy slapping” gang have pleaded guilty to killing a pensioner in front of his granddaughter in south London.

Ekram Haque, 67, a retired care worker, was attacked in August 2009 in Church Lane, Tooting, as he left a mosque. He died a week later from injuries which included a wound to the head.

The boys, aged 15 and 16, pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the Old Bailey. Another 15-year-old youth admitted causing actual bodily harm. So-called “happy slapping” attacks refer to violence which is recorded by the perpetrators on mobile phones.

The attack on Mr Haque on 31 August was witnessed by his three-year-old granddaughter.

The boys were charged with his murder but the lesser charges of manslaughter and assault occasioning actual bodily harm were accepted by prosecutors.

All three teenagers also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to two other men, Atta-ul Hassan Mir and Imdad Bukari, on the same day as the attack on Mr Haque, as they too left the mosque during the Muslim festival of Ramadan.

The court heard that the teenagers were in a gang which called themselves Lane Gang Productions.

BBC News, 16 June 2010

See also Wandsworth Guardian, 16 June 2010

EDL leaders drop plans for ‘suicide’ demonstration in Tower Hamlets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Leaders of the English Defence league have issued a pledge today that they won’t be marching into London’s East End on Sunday.

Plans were dropped after talks with Scotland Yard advising them that a Muslim meeting they were objecting to was not going ahead at Stepney’s Troxy venue after all. “It would be a suicide mission if we walked into East London,” their leader Tommy Robinson told the East London Advertiser.

“The Met Police told us there would be a hostile scene with thousands of protesters coming from all over if we turned up. We’ve won our victory just getting the Islamic meeting with its extremist speakers cancelled.”

But even cancelling Sunday’s EDA march won’t stop a counter demo by anti-fascist campaigners who plan to march at 2.30pm from Stepney Green Park to Whitechapel’s Altab Ali Park for a rally to show ‘East End solidarity’ against the Far Right.

East London Advertiser, 15 June 2010

Stop these exclusion orders against Muslim preachers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sources tell me that the Home Office is currently considering issuing two exclusion orders. One would be against a Jamaican-born Muslim preacher called Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips and the other against Zakir Naik, who is due to arrive in the UK on Friday to begin a speaking tour to huge audiences at the Sheffield Arena, London’s Wembley Arena and the LG Arena in Birmingham’s NEC. Naik is based in Mumbai, India and has in recent years built up a huge international following among Muslims. His lectures and debates on the topic of comparative religion are played continuously on Peace TV – the satellite channel that he founded.

This is just the latest in a series of “naming and shaming” exclusion orders that began a couple of years ago when the former Labour government said that it would introduce a policy of banning “preachers of hate” from visiting the UK. At the end of last month the Sunday Times ran an article about Zakir Naik that seems to have panicked some people in the government. For his part Naik has since issued a press statement saying that he “unequivocally condemns acts of violence including 9/11, 7/7 and 7/11 [the serial train bombing in Mumbai], which are completely and absolutely unjustifiable on any basis.”

We already have a sufficient number of laws on the statute books to deal with incitement to hatred and violence, and the fact is that both Bilal Philips and Zakir Naik have visited the UK on several occasions in the past – and their speaking tours have passed by without incident. Neither speaker has said anything that has got them in trouble with the law, so why not just uphold our existing laws rather than seek to pre-emptively ban them? It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the exclusion order policy is yet another government PR gimmick designed to show that it is getting tough on those it regards as being extremists.

Inayat Bunglawala at Comment is Free, 15 June 2010

EDL ‘not welcome’ in Wembley says council leader

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDLdemonstrationThe top councillor in Brent has said a protest against a Muslim peace conference in Wembley is “not welcome”.

Councillor Ann John, Labour’s leader of Brent Council, hit out at the English Defence League (EDL), which is targeting the Al-Khair Peace Conference due to be held on Saturday, June 26, at Wembley Arena.

She said in a letter: “Brent is Britain’s most diverse multi-cultural and multi-faith borough and our diversity is our strength. The planned demonstration is a deliberate provocation aimed at creating fear amongst the Muslim community and undermining community relations. The EDL is not welcome here.”

Cllr John was writing on behalf of the 40 Labour councillors in the borough, and backed the move by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) to hold a counter-demonstration on the same day in opposition to EDL.

Harrow Times, 15 June 2010

Rory Bremner says he’s afraid to joke about Islam

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rory Bremner, the political impressionist, said he fears joking about Islam could lead to his death due to the “chilling” issue of fundamentalism.

Bremner said self-censorship was the biggest obstacle today for comedians addressing topical issues, due to fears of retribution by extremists.

His comments came as he discussed the future of satire with Sir David Frost on a BBC documentary, Frost on Satire, to be broadcast on Thursday.

Sir David professed himself “surprised” at Bremner’s comments that he feared a joke could put his life in danger.

Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2010

Posted in UK

Muslim conference in Wembley target for EDL protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL in BirminghamA protest group that tours the country staging “anti-jihad” demonstrations is planning a rally in Wembley against a Muslim peace conference.

The English Defence League (EDL) is recruiting members for the demonstration outside Wembley Arena on Saturday, June 26. The protest is aimed at the Al-Khair Peace Convention 2010, being organised by Muslim charity the Al-Khair Foundation to “remove misconceptions, false fear and hate of Islam and Muslims globally”.

During the weekend, the internet has been flooded with EDL supporters spreading the word about the protest and recruiting people to come along.

EDL has picked out Dr Nakir Zair, president of the Islamic Research Foundation, an Indian-based charity set up in 1991 to try to raise awareness of the ideals behind Islam, for particular criticism. Dr Zair, a keynote speaker at the conference, is labelled by the EDL as an “Islamist apologist” who is responsible for organising “stealth jihad” under the pretense of talking about peace.

The EDL demonstration, planned between 2pm and 8.30pm, could face opposition from Unite Against Fascism (UAF), a protest group that regularly turns out to EDL events.

Brent Green Party member and UAF activist Martin Francis wrote on his blog: “The fact that the EDL wants to protest at an attempt at dialogue speaks for itself. Discussions on how to combat the EDL’s unwelcome presence in Wembley will be discussed over the next few days by Brent and Harrow Unite Against Fascism and other organisations.”

Harrow Times, 14 June 2010

BNP activist accused of inciting hatred against Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP heroin leaflet

A British National Party activist delivered leaflets of “hate speech” intended to stir up religious hatred of Muslims, a court heard today.

Anthony Bamber, 54, printed and then distributed documents entitled The Heroin Trade which allegedly claimed followers of Islam were responsible for the sale of the drug on Britain’s streets. It said the trade was a “crime against humanity” and demanded that Muslims “apologise and pay compensation” for the flow of heroin from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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Fascist football fan banned after hurling abuse at Muslim children

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A self-proclaimed “right-wing extremist” has been given a football banning order for making Nazi salutes and shouting a torrent of racist abuse at Muslim cub scouts after a Bristol Rovers match. A court heard Martyn Howlett was walking down Muller Road in Horfield after watching Rovers play Norwich City with his family and friends when he made his shocking outburst.

Bristol Magistrates’ Court was told that the 43-year-old gestured at a British National Party badge he was wearing as he abused a group of Asian children having a picnic outside the 1st Bristol Muslim Scout group’s headquarters. Waving his arms in a Nazi salute and pointing to his badge, he shouted: “It’s BNP, racist, fascism and Hitler”, before launching into a foul-mouthed tirade in front of the frightened children. The court heard he then directed abuse at a young girl wearing a head scarf.

Prosecuting, Michael Hartnell said: “He was making hand gestures towards the children, and said they were out to blow something up. The children were scared and extremely concerned for their safety.”  When asked what was wrong by Scout leader Sohail Javaid, Howlett repeatedly said: “This is our country, get out.” After police arrived, he said: “What is wrong with doing this? I am a right-wing extremist and I hate blacks.”

Magistrates gave Howlett a three-year football ban, which prohibits him from entering an area 750m around the Memorial Stadium on Rovers match days for three hours before kick-off and two hours afterwards. He is also banned from going to any football match in England or Wales, must surrender his passport to police before England away games, and not to travel to any towns or cities where Bristol Rovers or England are playing.

Bristol Evening Post, 11 June 2010

Peter Oborne slams media’s Muslim slurs as ‘un-British’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Peter_OborneColumnist Peter Oborne warned that Muslims were being unfairly represented in the media at a conference on Islamophobia on Saturday.

The Highbury-based journalist said his anger at Islamophobia stemmed from patriotism. He said: “We should stand up for British values and that means examining how society treats Muslims.”

The journalist, who writes for the right-leaning Spectator and Daily Mail, spoke alongside left-wingers including Tony Benn and Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn at the conference in the Camden Centre, off Euston Road. “I teased the audience about being on the other side of the barricades from them in, for example, the Cold War,” he said. “But I believe  in dialogue.”

Mr Oborne, who made a documentary two years ago examining the rise of intolerance against Muslims, told the audience Islamophobia was “un-British”. He added: “One of the greatest things about being British is that we have an enormous sense of fairness and religious tolerance and decency and there’s this tradition of protecting minorities.

“You are, in the media, able to tell lies about Muslims – to misrepresent them, fabricate stories about them in many ways that shame Britain. There were, for example, those stories about how Muslims had tried to get piggy banks banned because of political correctness – but just imagine if some of those headlines had said ‘Jew’ rather than ‘Muslim’.”

Islington Tribune, 11 June 2010