Bullet fired at Illinois mosque during prayer service

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A bullet was reportedly fired through the dome of an Orland Park mosque Tuesday morning, damaging the building during a early morning prayer service.

No one was hurt when the single shot was fired through the dome of the mosque a few minutes after 6 a.m. during the Fajr, or break-of-dawn prayer, according to a statement from the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The bullet penetrated the dome and caused debris to fall and disrupt the service, according to the statement. About 40 people were in the prayer center at the time.

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Neo-Nazi who plotted to blow up Mersey mosques branded ‘evil’ by judge

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ian Forman at Hitler's Berghof residence
Ian Forman at Berchtesgaden in 2012 during a pilgrimage to Adolf Hitler’s Berghof residence

A neo-Nazi who plotted to blow up Merseyside mosques was branded “evil” by a judge today.

Terror suspect Ian Forman, 42, from Birkenhead, planned to explode home-made devices packed with nails and ball-bearings. He downloaded pictures of two mosques near his home and labelled them “targets” before making a string of YouTube posts threatening to “blow them up”.

He stockpiled potassium nitrate, sulphur and charcoal, and drew up a shopping list of bomb components after months of internet research. The Hitler obsessive then created spreadsheets for the prices of chemicals needed for homemade bombs, and where they would be stocked.

Forman, who frequently expressed his racist ideology and views against the disabled to friends and workmates, also posted on YouTube about “Mosques lighting up the sky to keep us warm in the winter”.

A jury of seven men and five women at Kingston Crown Court today found Forman guilty of engaging in conduct in the preparation of terrorist acts.

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French airforce sergeant who planned to shoot Muslims has case dismissed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Al Forqane mosque demonstrationThe Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France draws our attention to reports that Christophe Lavigne, a sergeant in the French airforce with far-right links, will not now be prosecuted.

Lavigne was arrested last August and charged with planning an armed attack on worshippers at the Al Forqane mosque in the Lyon suburb of Vénissieux to coincide with the end of Ramadan.

Judges had already dismissed the charge against Lavigne of possessing ammunition in connection with a terrorist enterprise, on the grounds that the bullets were of a grade permitted for collectors of historical weapons and so were not illegal. This ruling has now been confirmed by the court of appeal in Paris.

Lavigne will stand trial in June on a charge of desecration of a place of worship in connection with a terrorist enterprise, having reportedly confessed to an earlier firebomb attack on a mosque in Libourne.

The CCIF comments: “There is no doubt that he represents a real terrorist threat, as he has already shown in practice by throwing a Molotov cocktail at the mosque in Libourne in August 2012. So how could this armed, dangerous and recidivist Islamophobe have been able to escape conviction and not be expelled from the French armed forces either?”

(Photo of demonstration outside Al Forqane mosque in August 2013 following Lavigne’s arrest: Abdel Malik)

Helsinki clothing store bosses fined over headscarf sacking

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Managers at a Helsinki clothing store have been fined over an incident in which they fired a Muslim worker on her first day at work because she was wearing a headscarf.

Helsinki District court has fined managers at a Helsinki clothing retailer for discriminating against an employee on the basis of religion. They received 20 day-fines for sacking a Muslim worker who was told she should not wear a headscarf.

The new worker, who had been hired on a one-month contract, was fired on her first day at work when managers realised she wore a headscarf. She had been hired over the phone, and told to turn up wearing a t-shirt and denim overalls. The store manager forbid her from wearing the headscarf in the store, and after discussing the matter with a senior manager fired the new employee.

The defendants denied that their decision was discriminatory, saying that a scarf that ensured only the worker’s face was visible did not fit the company’s brand. That view was not shared by the district court, which ruled in favour of the prosecutor and fined the defendants.

YLE News, 24 March 2014

Sentencing delayed in case of Toronto man convicted of promoting hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Eric BrazauSentencing has been delayed in the case of a hate-mongering Toronto man convicted of a charge rarely laid in Ontario courtrooms.

Eric Brazau was found guilty in February of willfully promoting hatred against Muslims, a charge that was laid only after police and the Crown attorney received consent from the deputy attorney general. He was scheduled to be sentenced Monday, but due to court scheduling conflicts, it was put over until Wednesday.

The hate charge stemmed from incidents in September 2012, in which Brazau handed out home-made flyers, on which he wrote the words, “They are here and breeding,” with an excerpt from the Qur’an beneath it, which read, “Kill them wherever you find them.”

The flyers included photos of men, women and children dressed in tradition Muslim garb, including one photo of a Toronto man and his wife as she pushed a stroller. “As well, this side of the flyer contained a graphic representation of a skeletal pregnant woman wearing a hijab – her belly is a bomb with a lit fuse,” Justice Ford Clements wrote in his February judgment.

On the other side of the pamphlet were “a number of graphic images… (that) associated the Islamic religion and the prophet Muhammad with pedophilia, bestiality and Satanism,” Clements wrote.

Brazau was also convicted of criminal harassment and mischief, after blocking the path of the Toronto man shown in his flyer and photographing him as he attempted to walk down a pathway. Court heard Brazau had on an earlier occasion confronted the same man and called him “a terrorist.”

Given that Brazau was on probation for a previous conviction at the time, he was also charged with – and ultimately convicted of – breaching his probation by not keeping the peace.

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Vlaams Belang activists chant ‘fewer, fewer’ in solidarity with Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vlaams Belang Wilders coverBelgian Vlaams Belang party activists were chanting “fewer, fewer!” during their party’s electoral congress on Sunday in Antwerp-Belgium, in support of the Dutch right-wing party leader Geert Wilders, who wants “fewer Moroccans” in the Netherlands.

According to the Belgian news website 7sur7, 2,000 activists appeared in support of the anti-Muslim Geert Wilders and chanted “fewer, fewer!” as the Vlaams Belang party leader, Filip Dewinter, spoke about stopping immigration in Belgium, during the nationalist party’s electoral congress.

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EDL call for march in defence of plans to build 300 student flats near Cambridge mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

English Defence League (EDL) supporters are calling for a national demonstration in Cambridge after Muslims objected to student accommodation being built near a planned mosque. The call for a march or rally in the city comes after Muslims slammed proposals for more than 300 student flats in Mill Road – saying they instead want homes for families.

One supporter of the Cambridge branch posted on their Facebook page: “We do not want a super mosque in Cambridge. They are now demanding that students can’t live 
next to the new mosque, what’s next shut down Mill Road? Enough is enough. EDL please demo in Cambridge. We need you.”

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Planet Fitness kicked Muslim woman out for wearing head scarf: lawsuit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tarainia McDanielA New Mexico woman is claiming Planet Fitness isn’t always ‘judgment free.’

The national budget-friendly gym chain promises members an atmosphere free of “gymtimidation.” But Tarainia McDaniel, a Muslim woman, says a gym in Albuquerque booted her out because she was wearing a head scarf. The woman reportedly told staff at the gym that the head scarf was an essential part of her Muslim faith. In return, she was told to go find a baseball cap.

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Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 17‑23 March

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 17‑23 March 2014

Ten thousand join UN Anti-Racism Day demo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UN Anti-Racism Day London 2014

Around ten thousand people participated in the Stand Up to Racism & Fascism demonstration on Saturday 22 March 2014. The event coincided with UN Anti-Racism Day and was part of an international day of action with demonstrations taking place across the globe from New York, Athens to Sao Paulo.

The demonstration was vibrant, positive, diverse and lively with a range of different communities including EU migrants from Romania, Bulgaria and Poland to Roma, Gypsy, Kurdish, Muslim, Christian and other faith communities joining trade unions, anti-racist, anti-fascist and social movements. The event was a magnificent display of Britain’s diversity, multiculturalism and unity against racism and hatred.

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