Toronto police launch hate-crime investigation after assault on woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Toronto hate-crime suspect
Security camera images of the man wanted in hate/bias assault investigation

Toronto police have launched a hate-crime investigation after a Muslim woman was spat upon last week outside a plaza in the city’s northeast, just hours after counterterrorism investigators dismantled a local al-Qaeda-linked plot to derail a Via passenger train.

The suspect also said something to the 18-year-old victim, who was wearing a hijab, but she could not understand him due to a language barrier, police said.

“Obviously there’s no motivation that we can determine other than the fact that the woman was wearing a hijab,” said Det.-Sgt. Jim Gotell of 33 Division, noting the victim had done “absolutely nothing” to provoke the assault, and there were no overt signs that the suspect suffered from a mental illness. “The only logical assumption we can make at this point in time is [it was] because she was wearing a hijab, and it was a hate crime.”

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Muslim cabdriver alleges assault by passenger who cited Boston Marathon bombing

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Mohamed SalimAn Army reservist and Iraq veteran who works as a cabdriver says a passenger he picked up early Friday at a Northern Virginia country club accused him of being a terrorist because he is Muslim, then fractured his jaw in an attack being described by Islamic activists as a hate crime.

Mohamed A. Salim says the passenger compared him to the men accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing 11 days earlier and threatened to kill him. “Because I’m a Muslim, he treated me like a piece of trash,” Salim said. “I love this country. I didn’t deserve this.”

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EDL to hold Yorkshire protest against ‘mosque’ plan

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lingfield mosque site graffiti
Graffiti daubed on the wall of the disused Lingfield pub last February

The right-wing English Defence League, whose members were the targets of an aborted attack by Muslim extremists in West Yorkshire last summer, is planning a rally in Leeds this weekend. Its leader Tommy Robinson tweeted that the Saturday demonstration against a planned mosque in the city would be a “lively one”.

Saturday’s rally is planned outside the old Lingfield pub in Alwoodley. A counter demonstration by Unite Against Fascism is also planned.

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US panel slams Europe’s ‘aggressive secularism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

USCIRF Annual Report 2013A US panel criticized Western European countries Tuesday for “aggressive secularism” as it released a report on religious freedom that took aim at laws banning full-face veils in public.

For the first time, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom — whose members are appointed by the government — included a chapter on the region in its annual review of tolerance of other faiths around the world.

Because Western Europe generally has a very good record, “it’s easy to overlook the fact that there are some questions and problematic issues emerging there” related to religious dress and customs, commission chair Katrina Lantos Swett told reporters. “In some countries a very aggressive secularism is putting people of religious faith in uncomfortable and difficult positions.”

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Middle TN commissioner’s threatening Facebook post

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Barry West Facebook imageA Coffee County commissioner’s Facebook post suggesting Muslims are best greeted from behind a rifle barrel is prompting demands for an apology.

Commissioner Barry West’s post follows a string of anti-Muslim acts throughout Middle Tennessee in recent years, including at least four incidents of mosque vandalism. Opposition to a new mosque in Rutherford County was so strong it took federal Justice Department intervention to open it last year.

West played no active role in any of those incidents. He just put an image on his Facebook page, which shows a man aiming a shotgun under the phrase “How to wink at a Muslim.” But even that put a chill through Muslims in Middle Tennessee.

Muslim groups tweeted a screen grab of his post and it went viral. West, who lives in Manchester, removed it about an hour later. He did not apologize, instead questioning how his tweet had become the focus of attention. West responded with this email: “No I did not Twitter this … no I did not create this picture … yes I shared it … so why am I being singled out?”

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Danish supermarket rejects work placement for woman wearing headscarf

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Netto logoA 26-year-old Muslim was told not to apply for a job at Netto because she wears a head scarf, reports Fyens Stiftidende.

Nada Fraije is an unemployed social worker from Odense who recently approached Netto about the possibility of a work placement.

But a Netto representative told her not to bother as its parent company, Dansk Supermarked, has for the past ten years forbidden employees who interact with customers from wearing anything on their heads, unless it was necessary for hygiene purposes.

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Graffiti attack on mosque at Graulhet

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that, following the graffiti attack at Meximieux a week earlier, a second mosque was desecrated this weekend – at Graulhet in the Tarn department in southern France. Graffiti were found on the wall of the Nour Al-Mouhammadi mosque, including a drawing of a pig’s head and the slogan “Arabs out”.

An investigation has been opened and government minister Manuel Valls has issued a statement condemning the attack. The CCIF, however, points out that they have recorded 13 attacks on French mosques so far this year, all of which remain “under investigation”, without the perpetrators having been identified. The CCIF argues that words are not enough and concrete results are needed.

Anti-Muslim graffiti attack in Meximieux

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Meximieux fascist graffiti

The Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France reports that they have been informed by a Muslim cultural association at Meximieux in eastern France that the community has been subjected to a graffiti attack.

Not only was their mosque desecrated but a fascist symbol was spray-painted on the wall of the block of flats where the president of the association lives.

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Female converts to Islam face negative stereotyping

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“Converts to Islam are as diverse as the rest of America, racially and ethnically, as well as in their interpretations of the faith. Some female converts wear a headscarf, some don’t. What they share is the perception from others that they are incapable of making their own choice in a decision that involved substantial spiritual wrestling.”

Omar Sacirbey reports.

Religion News Service, 29 April 2013