English Defence League leader Stephen Lennon has been charged with mortgage fraud, Bedfordshire Police say.
He was among six people to be charged following a fraud investigation by the force.
Mr Lennon, 30, also known as Tommy Robinson, is currently on remand in Wandsworth Prison for a separate, unrelated offence.
A police spokesman said he had been charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to a mortgage application.
Authorities said a man vowed to shoot up a San Antonio mosque and then turn the gun on himself, but law enforcement foiled the violent plot before it ever materialized.
Worshippers prayed Tuesday night at the Islamic Academy of San Antonio amid an atmosphere of concern. “Very bad news for us,” said Solomon Hamideh, president of the Islamic Academy of San Antonio.
According to an affidavit, Christopher Bane “had intentions of going to a mosque in the Medical Center area and was going to shoot as many people” as he could, and then shoot himself. A witness, who police are not identifying for safety concerns, said Bane told him he had a .45 caliber handgun and ammunition.
Newham council officers have recommended that councillors reject controversial plans for a so-called mega mosque in West Ham.
The plans to erect the Riverine Centre, also known as Abbey Mills Mosque put forward by trustees following the Tabilighi Jamaat movement, are due to be heard by the Strategic Development Committee at Newham Council on Wednesday (December 5) of next week.
The meeting will be held at the Main Hall at the Old Town Hall in Stratford.
Jewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders from Queens gathered with lawmakers to denounce the possible hate crime committed at a Kew Gardens Hills Mosque earlier this month, and city Comptroller John Liu suggested some of the NYPD’s policies could make bias crimes more common.
“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” said Imam Shamsi Ali, of the Jamaica Muslim Center, who gathered religious leaders from around Flushing in the wake of the Nov. 18 attack.
A Sinn Fein councillor has challenged former Craigavon Mayor Alan Carson to “make a full public apology to Muslims living in Craigavon” after remarks he made during a debate on Monday night. However the DUP man insists that Councillor Johnny McGibbon is “simply scoring political points from a genuine mistake I made and for which I apologised immediately”.
An independent candidate in the Rotherham by-election is a member of the far-right English Defence League who has criminal convictions,The Star can reveal.
Clint Bristow, aged 39, of Cantley, Doncaster, is one of 11 people standing in tomorrow’s by-election caused by the resignation of Labour MP Denis MacShane over dishonest expenses claims.
French anti-veil laws are steeped in racism and have opened the door to abuse against Muslims, argues Valeria Costa-Kostritsky.
The Daily Telegraph, whose sister paper the Sunday Telegraph waged a disgraceful smear campaign against Foreign Office minister and former Tory party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi, carries a report titled “Baroness Warsi rapped by Lords sleaze watchdog over undeclared Wembley flat income”.
The Lords Commissioner for Standards found that Warsi had omitted to register an interest as the recipient of £6,937 in rent during 2010-11 from a flat in Wembley, which she had been forced to leave for security reasons on joining the cabinet and was unable to sell due to negative equity. The rent she received was in fact less than the mortgage and other expenses she paid on the flat, but it exceeded the £5,000 threshold and should therefore have been declared.
The Commissioner accepted that Warsi’s oversight did not result in any financial loss to the taxpayer or additional monetary gain to herself, and that she had made no attempt to conceal the existence of the flat or the fact that she was renting it out. Indeed, Warsi herself pointed out that she had made the rental arrangement known to the Cabinet Office, the Leader of the House and HM Revenue and Customs.
In other words, this is pretty much a non-story. Which didn’t prevent the Telegraph from hyping it up for the benefit of Warsi’s enemies in the Tory party and the paper’s own readership of right-wing anti-Muslim bigots.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested by police investigating a hate crime after pieces of ham were thrown at a mosque. The teenager was held on suspicion of a religiously aggravated public order offence by officers called to Broadfield Mosque in Crawley, West Sussex.
Sussex Police said “real anguish and anxiety” was caused to worshippers who witnessed the incident as they left the mosque at around 4pm last Tuesday. The arrested teenager, who is from the local area, has been freed on police bail pending further inquiries.
Sergeant Jim Collen, of Sussex Police, said: “This was a very unpleasant incident which has naturally caused real anguish and anxiety amongst worshippers at the mosque. Sussex Police take all reports of hate crime extremely seriously and this investigation will be no exception.”
Disorder which broke out following the incident was also being investigated, police said. Mr Collen said: “We are aware of a relatively minor altercation that we hope to resolve using our restorative justice programme. It must not be allowed to take the focus away from our investigation of the hate crime as this remains our priority.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Sussex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A man who was arrested during an English Defence League march in Norwich and charged with using threatening words or behaviour has been fined.
Matthew Berryman, 28, of Astell Road, Norwich, appeared at Norwich Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he pleaded guilty to the offence on November 10. He was ordered to pay a £150 fine, a £20 victim surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.