Telegraph provokes arson threats against Lewisham Islamic Centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL link to Torygraph Lewisham Islamic Centre report

Yesterday saw the jailing of three men for the firebombing of Grimsby Mosque following the murder of Lee Rigby last May. As we pointed out, the arson attack on the mosque was preceded by calls on the Facebook page of the English Defence League’s Grimsby division for the building to be burned down.

Earlier yesterday, in the immediate aftermath of the conviction and sentencing of Lee Rigby’s murderers, the Daily Telegraph saw fit to publish an inflammatory report, based on no evidence at all, that Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale “had links with the Lewisham Islamic Centre in south-east London, less than six miles from the Woolwich street where they murdered the soldier”.

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McDonald’s settles Fresno lawsuit over firing Muslim employee for beard request

Posted on by Bob Pitt

McDonald’s Restaurants of California Inc. will pay $50,000 to a Muslim employee who was fired in 2005 after one of its Fresno restaurants refused his request to grow a beard for religious reasons.

The payment is part of an agreement announced Friday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to settle a religious-discrimination lawsuit against the restaurant chain.

Shaheed Khan, who worked at a McDonald’s restaurant on West Shaw Avenue near Valentine Avenue, asked his managers in the summer of 2005 to accommodate his religious belief to wear a beard at work, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Fresno.

The lawsuit alleged that Khan’s request was denied and later terminated. Khan had worked at the restaurant since 2001 and was promoted to crew trainer in 2003.

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Online hate and the Grimsby Mosque firebombing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Grimsby Islamic Cultural Centre arsonThe prison sentences handed down to Stuart Harness, Gavin Humphries and Daniel Cressey, who launched a firebomb attack on Grimsby Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre last May, are very welcome.

As the judge pointed out in sentencing them, the substantial prison terms handed out to the three arsonists – six years each for Harness and Humphries, three for Cressey – were intended to serve not just as an appropriate punishment for the perpetrators themselves but also as a deterrent to other violent racists who might be inclined to follow them.

Although there is no evidence of direct links between the three men and the English Defence League, it should be noted that their firebombing of Grimsby Mosque was preceded by an online campaign by local EDL supporters calling for an arson attack on the building.

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Three jailed over arson attack on Grimsby Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Grimsby Mosque arson CCTV

Two former soldiers who firebombed a mosque following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby have each been jailed for six years.

Stuart Harness, 34, and Gavin Humphries, 37, made petrol bombs and threw them at the Grimsby Islamic Cultural Centre while being filmed on CCTV cameras they thought were turned off. They were jailed today by Judge Mark Bury at Hull Crown Court after admitting arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered at an earlier hearing.

Judge Bury told the pair: “This was a crime of violence where a particular religious group was deliberately targeted in an act of retribution.” He said: “This kind of attack cannot be tolerated. A severe sentence is required to punish but, more importantly, to deter.”

He jailed a third defendant, Daniel Cressey – who denied aiding and abetting the other two but was found guilty by a jury – also for three years.

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Torygraph tries to implicate Lewisham Islamic Centre in murder of Lee Rigby

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Daily Telegraph has a report headlined “Lee Rigby killers had links to Lewisham mosque that ‘attracts radicals'”, which cites unnamed “Whitehall sources” as claiming that Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale “had links with the Lewisham Islamic Centre in south-east London, less than six miles from the Woolwich street where they murdered the soldier”.

The unnamed source is quoted as saying of the centre: “It does attract a radical crowd and radical speakers and has its fair share of converts. From that perspective it is significant. Adebolajo and Adebowale did go there, and anywhere that attracts extremists is of interest.”

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Wilders anti-Islam sticker met with anger

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders anti-Islam stickerA tweet from PVV leader Geert Wilders featuring an Anti-Islam slogan written in Arabic has drawn the ire of many on the social network.

Wilders, who last week told the BBC, “A responsible politician I believe never stirs up any problems in any society,” was showing off a bumper sticker affixed to his office door.

The sticker is designed to look like the flag of Saudi Arabia, and says, “Islam is a lie. Mohammed is a crook. The Quran is poison,” reports Hart van Nederland. Wilders tweeted out an email address where the sticker may be ordered for free.

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Suspected arson attack on Bulgarian mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A fire broke out at a mosque which has repeatedly been attacked, causing serious damage to the roof on Thursday in coastal Bulgarian city Varna. The fire which erupted in the morning was extinguished by fire fighting crews.

Noting the mosque had been attacked several times in the past, the Office of Bulgarian Islamic Affairs head Ahmed Ahmedov referred to how the attackers broke windows, drew swastikas, and wrote racist slogans escaped justice as investigations remain inconclusive.

“While police investigate, we as the Office of Islamic Affairs will do our own investigation,” said the Muslim cleric.

The office noted that nationalist and racist blocks have stepped up their aggressive acts against local and foreign Muslims amid the recent influx of Arab and African refugees in the country.

World Bulletin, 19 December 2013

‘It is just a joke’: Muslim children, teens report bullying in California schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CAIR Growing in FaithA new survey that tracks bullying directed at Muslim children and teens in California finds that half have at some point been subject to “mean comments and rumors” over their religion.

The survey was put together by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. It surveyed 471 Muslim students in California public schools between the ages of 11 and 18.

For the most part, students reported “a healthy school environment in which they were comfortable participating in discussions about their religious identity” and in which they felt safe and respected by teachers and safe at school. But there were problems, too.

Of the 50 percent who reported social bullying, along the lines of name-calling and other remarks, it was “stuff you would expect,” said report author Fatima Dadabhoy, a staff attorney and civil rights manager and staff attorney with CAIR in Anaheim.

“Being called a terrorist, or ‘What is that thing on your head?’…girls being called a towel-head, or jokes like ‘Don’t throw that bomb on me’ or ‘Don’t bomb us today,'” Dadabhoy said. “These were the most common ones we heard about.”

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