Police are searching for a cyclist who tried to pull a Muslim woman’s face veil off as he rode past her. The woman was targeted as she walked with her family to Leicester’s Victoria Park.
Racist vandals paint swastika on proposed mosque site
Vandals daubed a swastika on the door of a proposed mosque.
The graffiti was painted onto the front door of the old Bank Chamber building, which is owned by an Islamic group that wants to convert it into a mosque, in Green Lane, Worcester Park, between 8am and 11pm on Tuesday, June 4.
The attack comes in the aftermath of the murder of soldier Drummer Lee Rigby near his barracks in Woolwich last month and in the midst of a spate of vandalism on Muslim buildings around the country.
Vandals painted the red swastika – the emblem of the Nazi party – on the door of the building but it was quickly covered up by green paint. Police are investigating.
English Defence League leader condemns attacks on Muslims
The leader of the English Defence League has said he “utterly condemns” attacks on Muslims.
Tommy Robinson denied claims his group had firebombed an Islamic community centre in London, where the letters EDL were sprayed on the building. He told the BBC the graffiti could have been placed there to make it look as if the group was responsible.
Mr Robinson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he condemned all acts of violence by EDL members and the group was about peaceful protest.
He denied his group was behind the blaze in Muswell Hill last week. “If something was set fire and someone wrote David Cameron on the side of it, does it mean he did it?” he said. “If I’m honest, I’m completely sceptical that it is even non-Muslims that have done that.”
Reims: Young woman wearing hijab is attacked
The attack took place on Sunday afternoon in Reims (Marne). While she was driving with her husband, the young veiled woman was violently set upon by a passer-by.
The 17-year adolescent, an apprentice with the Compagnons du Devoir, started to insult her. According to the prefecture, he repeatedly asked her to remove her headscarf before “pouring a stream of racist abuse on her and her husband”. According to the testimony of the couple and Muslim and anti-racist associations in Reims, the perpetrator “put his hand through the window of the vehicle in an attempt to forcibly remove the woman’s scarf”.
Wilders: ‘What we need today is Zionism for the nations of Europe’
LOS ANGELES — Europeans “need to follow the example of the Jewish people and re-establish their nation-state” to counter the growing Islamization of their countries, Dutch politician Geert Wilders said Sunday in Los Angeles.
“My friends, what we need today is Zionism for the nations of Europe,” Wilders, founder and leader of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, said at the “Europe’s Last Stand?” conference, organized by the American Freedom Alliance.
Wilders described that Europe’s inner cities “have come to resemble Northern Africa and the Middle East” because they are ruled by Islamic Sharia law, noting that Islamic areas border the European Union headquarters in Brussels and that “largely Islamic suburbs” surround Paris. “Europe is in a terrible state,” Wilders said. “Bit by bit, European countries are losing their national sovereignty.”
Pro-Israel women’s group has history of anti-Islam activism, Matt Duss reveals
Last week, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin hailed the arrival of “a strong new player in the pro-Israel community,” Concerned Women for America. It’s “music to the ears of Israel and her friends,” Rubin wrote, “that a 500,000-strong conservative group that has mostly focused on social and economic issues has adopted defense of Israel as part of its core mission.”
What Rubin doesn’t mention is that, in addition to a number of other very right-wing causes, CWFA has a history of anti-Muslim activism. In particular, the group pushes the “creeping sharia” conspiracy theory, which holds that Islamic religious law represents an imminent threat to the United States, and which my colleague Wajahat Ali and I debunked in a 2011 brief.
Cambridge man faces trial over knife and race charges after Woolwich killing
A Cambridge man accused of brandishing a knife and making racial comments on a train in the wake of the Woolwich killing faces a trial.
David Scott Camp, 35, of Romsey Terrace, was today remanded on unconditional bail by Chelmsford magistrates to appear at Chelmsford Crown Court August 19. He is accused of affray, possessing a knife or bladed point and possessing cannabis on May 23.
Camp is accused of using or threatening to use unlawful violence towards other persons is said to have had a folding lock knife on board a train travelling between London and Harlow and of having the cannabis on the same occasion. No pleas were entered by Camp.
Sharp rise in Islamophobic incidents, says senior Met police officer
There has been a sharp rise in the number of attacks against Muslims, a senior officer in Britain’s biggest police force has said.
Commander Simon Letchford said abuse of Muslims may be more widespread than figures suggest as a result of under-reporting and the Metropolitan Police had stepped up security at some Islamic centres. He said around eight Islamophobic incidents a day were taking place in the capital every day, up from the usual rate of a single daily incident.
Mr Letchford urged Londoners to “stand shoulder to shoulder” in response to the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.
Four arson arrests over Islamic Darul Uloom School fire
Four teenagers have been arrested after a fire at an Islamic boarding school in south-east London.
About 128 pupils and staff were evacuated from Darul Uloom School in Foxbury Avenue, Chislehurst, on Saturday.
Two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds were arrested on suspicion of arson on Sunday, the Metropolitan police said.
Boxing promoter faces racism probe after vicious Facebook comments against Muslims
The manager of boxing champ Ricky Burns is facing a racism probe after a hate-fuelled rant about Muslims appeared on his Facebook page. The posts on Alex Morrison’s page refer to Muslims as “deceitful scum” and “pigs” and urge people to boycott their businesses.
Bosses at the British Boxing Board of Control are to discuss the outburst at a meeting this week and will ask Glasgow-based Morrison, 72, to explain. A source said: “The board agree that what’s on Alex’s page is racist and brings the sport into disrepute. They’ve been made aware of the comments but been unable to officially discuss them. That will happen in the next few days and he’ll be asked for an explanation.”