Condemned: The racist call to burn down Grimsby mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man urged people to burn down Grimsby’s mosque so the town could be put on the national map “big time”. Today, the dreadful comments, posted on Facebook, have been condemned by our mayor, who says: “This does not show the true face of North East Lincolnshire. The general public will be appalled by these comments.”

Steven Ballard was the second local man to be hauled before the courts in just two weeks for posting offensive comments about the mosque on the social networking site – and appeared just a day after a third man was remanded in custody charged with firebombing the Weelsby Road venue last month. Ballard, 27, of Churchill Way, Grimsby, admitted sending an offensive or menacing message on May 23.

Rebecca Dolby, prosecuting, told Grimsby magistrates that police searched an open group forum on Facebook linked to the Grimsby division of the English Defence League. Ballard posted a message at about 10pm following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby at Woolwich. It read: “Burn the mosque down the end of Legsby Avenue. That will tell the clowns in charge in this country that we ain’t taking this s*** and it will start a nationwide action going. Grimsby will be on the map big time then.”

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Two charged with Gloucester mosque arson

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-E-Noor GloucesterA Cheltenham man has been charged with conspiracy to commit arson following a “hate crime” at a mosque.

Ashley Henry Juggins, 20, of Brooklyn Road will appear before magistrates today following the blaze in Gloucester. Clive Michael Ceronne, 37, of Redwood Close in Gloucester faces a similar charge after an attack on Masjid-E-Noor in Ryecroft Street in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Police confirmed yesterday it was being treated as a hate crime after CCTV appeared to show someone pouring petrol around the door and igniting it with a lit rag.

Since the attack police have been talking to the Muslim community in Cheltenham to allay fears. They have vowed to step up patrols around Gloucester’s mosques and said the two in Cheltenham were on current routes.

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Abercrombie struggling to prove fired woman’s hijab hurt sales

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Abercrombie__FitchAbercrombie & Fitch is having a hard time proving in court that the Muslim headscarf worn by an employee who was fired in 2010 hurt the clothing company’s sales, Law360 reports.

On Tuesday, when a federal judge in California pressed attorney Mark Knueve, who is representing Abercrombie, if he or any of his witnesses had financial records to show the woman’s hijab hurt sales, Knueve said he didn’t.

“A defendant says we’re harmed but provides no real evidence?” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers retorted, according to the report. “And you want me to grant summary judgment [in your favor]?”

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More thugs sentenced over EDL ‘charity walk’ in Bristol

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bristol 'Help for Heroes' marchMore people involved in the disorder in St George and Redfield last month have been punished.

On May 25, a walk raising money for the Help for Heroes military charity, and held in memory of drummer Lee Rigby who was murdered in London, ended in violent clashes between police and a group of about 60 people on Church Road. Anti-Muslim slurs were heard and pint glasses and bar stools were thrown in and around the St George’s Hall pub.

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Second man arrested after hate attack on Gloucester mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Masjid-E-Noor arson (2)Police patrols are being stepped up around mosques in Gloucester after an arson “hate attack” on Masjid-E-Noor.

Police have arrested a 37-year-old Gloucester man after the doors of the mosque, in Ryecroft Street, were set on fire in the early hours of yesterday.

A second man was arrested last night on suspicion of arson, following the mosque attack. Police said the 20-year-old man, believed to be from Cheltenham, was arrested overnight.

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Ban ‘fascist thuggery’ of EDL, says ex-police authority chief

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A former police authority chairman has accused the English Defence League (EDL) of “fascist street thuggery” after a march in Hull that led to 10 arrests.

Trouble flared when about 75 people took part a march along Spring Bank on June 8, although those arrested were protesting against the event. Police said the men were held for public order-related offences when a “small disturbance” happened just after 1.15pm. Eight were released without charge, while a man aged 19 received a police caution for possession of a class B drug, and a 23-year-old was charged with possession of an offensive weapon in public.

Hull councillor Colin Inglis has now called on police to ban any further marches. In a motion going before a meeting of the authority tomorrow, Coun Inglis, a former chairman of Humberside Police Authority, wrote:

“Council notes the so-called ‘English Defence League’ march along Spring Bank. It further notes the deliberately provocative nature of this event with participants engaging in crude and racist behaviour clearly intended to elicit a response from local residents in a typical display of fascist street thuggery. Council believes that the residents of Myton ward, the City in general but of Spring Bank in particular, deserve to be protected against such blatant attempts to incite communal hatred and calls upon the Police to ban any further such planned marches.”

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Australian Defence Force investigates sexist and Islamophobic Facebook posts

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Australian Defence Force is investigating whether serving military personnel are linked to offensive Facebook pages that included grossly sexist and anti-Muslim posts.

Facebook pages emerged in recent days that appear connected to serving and former soldiers based in Townsville and refer to local women as “sluts”. One of the Facebook groups is titled “Big Tits Don’t Count If Ya Fat”.

One page includes posters stating “Death to all illegal immo’s” and “We have seen enough of Islam. Nuke Mecca”, with a picture of a stealth bomber flying over the annual Muslim Haj pilgrimage. Another states, “Thanks for burning this evil Quran”, above a pile of ashes.

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Virginia cabbie pursues charges after anti-Muslim rant

Posted on by Bob Pitt

McLEAN, Va. — For the second time in as many months, a Muslim civil rights group is pursuing criminal charges on behalf of a taxicab driver who was subjected to an anti-Islamic rant caught on tape.

In the most recent case, an Ashburn, Va., woman unleashed a string of expletives and called 911 to report that she was afraid for her life because she said her cabbie, Abdikar Aden of Alexandria, was “very Muslim.”

Aden says the woman also poked him repeatedly in the back of his shoulder, though that part of the confrontation was not captured in a recording provided to The Associated Press.

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Civil rights groups sue NYPD over Muslim spying

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hina Shamsi announces civil rights suit
ACLU attorney Hina Shamsi announces the civil rights suit (Photo: Seth Freed Wessler)

The New York Police Department’s widespread spying programs directed at Muslims have undermined free worship by innocent people and should be declared unconstitutional, religious leaders and civil rights advocates said Tuesday after the filing of a federal lawsuit.

“Our mosque should be an open, religious and spiritual sanctuary, but NYPD spying has turned it into a place of suspicion and censorship,” Hamid Hassan Raza, an imam named as a plaintiff, told a rally outside police headquarters shortly after the suit was filed in federal court in Brooklyn.

The city’s legal department responded with a statement calling the intelligence-gathering an appropriate and legal tactic that helps keep the city safe from terrorism.

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