A man has admitted starting a fire at a mosque in Milton Keynes. Richard Bevington, 30, of North Street, Bletchley, pleaded guilty at Aylesbury Crown Court to arson with intent to endanger life and a racially and religiously-aggravated public order offence.
A fire was started at the back of the mosque on Manor Road, Bletchley, at about 01:00 GMT on 8 March, Thames Valley Police said.
The defendant will be sentenced in May. Bevington also pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession.
An imam who had planned a day out for Muslim families at Legoland in Windsor has blamed “extreme Islamophobia” for the event being cancelled.
Haitham Al-Haddad said his group privately hired the theme park for a day of “halal food and no alcohol”. But the event was cancelled and the resort had to temporarily close its hotel after receiving threats from right-wing groups. The English Defence League (EDL) had called Mr Al-Haddad “a hate preacher”.
UN anti-racism day – Assemble 11 am
Procession from Nelson Mandela statue, Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square rally
Speakers at the event will include: Diane Abbott MP, Natalie Bennett (Green Party Leader), Christine Blower (NUT General Secretary), Jerry Dammers, Bruce Kent (VP Pax Christi), Jean Lambert MEP, Max Levitas (Cable Street Veteran), Gloria Mills (UNISON National Secretary Equalities), Claude Moraes MEP, Farooq Murad (Secretary General – Muslim Council of Britain), Mohammad Taj (TUC President), Tommy Tomescu (Alliance Against Romanians and Bulgarians Discrimination), Ava Vidal (Comedian), Maurice Wren (Chief Executive – Refugee Council)
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Reports and comment from Islamophobia Watch 10‑16 March 2014
Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion reports that a recent luncheon in Houston, which was held to raise awareness of the Third Annual Holocaust March of Remembrance next month and drew over 200 Christian leaders, featured as its keynote speaker none other than Kamal Saleem – who, according to the organisers, “shared his remarkable story of turning from hatred of Jews and Christians, to serving the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”.
Richard Bartholomew comments: “This is utterly grotesque: Saleem’s story is indeed ‘remarkable’, but it’s not as surprising as the fact that groups continue to give a platform to a man whose absurd self-history has been so comprehensively exploded, and whose conspiracy theories include the claim that Obama is a secret Muslim working to create a USA in which ‘one day we’ll be wearing ragheads’.”
Moroccan organisations in the Netherlands said they will make a formal complaint against the public prosecution department if it does not take action over Geert Wilders’s latest anti-Moroccan statements.
The chairman of the national Moroccan council LBM said on Saturday the “the ball is now in the department’s court”. Mohamed Rabbae, a former MP for the left-wing green party GroenLinks, said: “We will wait until Monday to see if the department put its own policy [to protect citizens against discrimination] into action.”
Wilders has stated several times in recent days there should be fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands. Several commentators have noted this is the first time he has referred to a nationality, rather than “Muslims” or “Moroccan criminals”.
“Wilders has crossed his own boundary,” the Volkskrant said in an analysis. “Until now, Wilders has always managed to balance on the dividing line between what is and is not discrimination in the eyes of the law.”
Speaking during campaigning for the local elections in Almere on Saturday, Wilders said: “I can’t formulate it any differently. Less immigration, less ‘Islamisation’ and fewer Moroccans.”
His comments have also been condemned by prime minister Mark Rutte, who nevertheless did not rule out the VVD forming a local government coalition in Almere or The Hague with the PVV. Wilders party is only fielding candidates in the two cities and may become the biggest party in both.
Over a year after a possible listening device was found in the Graham Center’s Serenity Room in 343, the Muslim Student Association is still waiting for someone to claim the bug students say was discovered burrowed in the carpet under a prayer mat on February 9, 2013.
Student Media contacted MSA President Farouk Shihab who directed all news inquiries to representative Rayid Sakib. “We have waited for over a year to get an answer from the investigation, and we haven’t received any solid explanation of this incident,” said Sakib, a junior engineering major. “We decided to bring it out and also we felt the students who use the room deserve to know about this.”
The MSA released a statement on its Facebook page on March 11 in response to an article published by Miami New Times, which coupled the investigation with an incident in New York where NYPD is said to have spied on MSA chapters in the area. “For reasons unknown, the placement of such a device evidently accounts for a form of espionage intended to take place in the room,” the statement reads. “However, we find it necessary to establish that these assumptions behind this finding will only lead to closed ends.”
Sakib said the association retained counsel from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and is waiting for an organization to claim it. Neither the University Police Department nor Miami Police Department have claimed the device as one they were using for an investigation.
An attorney for an American man who claims he was tortured in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government said Friday that his client is too afraid to try to travel back home.
The contention came at a hearing involving a lawsuit filed by Yonas Fikre alleging the FBI and State Department demanded that he spy on a Portland mosque in 2011 then had him abused in a UAE prison when he refused. The federal agencies have declined to comment on the allegations, citing the ongoing litigation.
Fikre remains in Sweden, where he sought asylum after saying he was told by FBI agents that he was on the no-fly list. He also said a person who attempted to use his ticket to obtain a boarding pass in UAE was told Fikre could not fly.
Maajid Nawaz sparked heated exchanges with audience members at his first public appearance as Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn.
The 36-year-old, who will battle against Labour’s Tulip Siddiq and Conservative Simon Marcus to become Hampstead and Kilburn MP at next year’s general election, appeared at Hampstead Waterstones to speak about his book Radical on Tuesday.
Mr Nawaz spoke to journalist and commentator David Goodhart in front of a packed audience about the memoir exploring his journey from Islamic extremist to co-founder of counter-extremism think tank, Quilliam.