Judge criticises sentencing powers for racist’s anti-Muslim tirade

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A judge has hit out at sentencing powers that prevented him from handing out a tougher punishment to a self-confessed racist who threatened to blow up a mosque. Judge Niclas Parry said he found it “quite staggering” a religiously aggravated public order offence could only attract a fine as a punishment for former soldier John Parkin.

Parkin, who was jailed for 10 months for being in breach of an earlier suspended sentence, escaped separate punishment on two charges of religiously aggravated public order offences following two separate outbursts against Muslims in Rhyl.

On one occasion, Parkin, 26, of River Street, Rhyl, was seen near Ellis’ public house in Water Street in Rhyl, where there was also a mosque, in a drunken condition and he was warned about his behaviour.

The licensee heard him say: “I have got guns. I want to shoot Muslims in the head.” He spoke about blowing up the mosque and the licensee found his remarks extremely racist and offensive, the court heard.

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Lib Dem’s anti-Islam rants: ‘Put pork restaurant next to mosque’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Liberal Democrat candidate has refused to apologise for a series of shocking Islamophobic comments. Sick Dave Stones suggested a pork restaurant and a topless bar – named after Islam’s holiest city – should be built next to a mosque.

The would-be councillor, who is the party’s candidate for a by-election in Redcar and Cleveland on 19 January, said:

“Regarding the mosque being built near ground zero. I say let them build it. But then, across the street we should put a topless bar called ‘You Mecca Me Hot’ … and next to that a pork rib restaurant … Then we’ll see who’s tolerant.”

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Three men sentenced over arson attack on Sussex mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Everley Smith & MorrisThree men have been sentenced for an arson attack on a newly-renovated mosque in West Sussex.

James Everley, 20, of Crawley, James Smith, 20, of Burgess Hill, and Joshua Morris, 20, of Haywards Heath, were all sentenced to three years at a young offenders institute.

The fire at the mosque in Wivelsfield Road, Haywards Heath, was started at about 02:10 GMT on 13 February. Police believe the attack was a religiously-aggravated hate crime.

The men had pleaded guilty at Hove Crown Court to arson, theft of paraffin and a public order offence, which involved racially or religiously aggravated fear of violence.

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Religious groups oppose NYPD surveillance

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Christian ministers and Muslim leaders said Thursday they’re joining to oppose police surveillance of ethnic groups in New York City.

The Faith and Freedom Alliance includes Protestant pastors from mostly black congregations in New York, some of them veteran activists who were put under police surveillance during the civil rights protests of the 1960s. The group had its first meeting on Thursday at a church in Harlem.

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‘Pollard and Bright’s Islamist fear betrays our community’s values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The controversy unleashed by Martin Bright’s attack on leading figures in the Jewish community for co-operating with London Citizens continues in the Jewish Chronicle with a piece by Keith Kahn-Harris, co-author of Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today.

The article is measured and balanced but Kahn-Harris’s criticisms of the JC‘s relationship under its present editorial regime to the community it is supposed to serve really are quite devastating.

Quebec mosque again hit by vandals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gatineau mosque graffiti2A mosque in Gatineau, Que., that has been a target of vandalism was spray-painted with graffiti overnight.

Workers at the Outaouais Islamic Centre awoke Thursday to discover swear words and derogatory references to Arabs and Allah spray-painted in white. The vandals painted messages on the front doors, across the building’s side and on two other entrances to the building.

The mosque had earlier been vandalized Monday morning when windows were damaged and someone attempted to set fire to two cars in the parking lot.

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Three-month suspended sentence for FN member who desecrated Muslim graves

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A former soldier, convicted of desecrating Muslim graves with pieces of pork, in the cemetery at Castres in south-west France, received a 3-month suspended prison sentence on Wednesday 4 January.

In January 2011 the former soldier left pieces of pork rind on three graves in the Muslim section of Castres cemetery. Identified by DNA traces left on the rind, the accused, aged 48 and retired from the army for ten years, assured the court that his gesture was aimed only against radical Muslims, and he offered his apologies to the families of the deceased. During the investigation, he initially described himself as “a resistance fighter against the Arab-Muslim invasion”.

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Far-right party that incites anti-Muslim hatred thinks it unlikely that attacks on mosque were motivated by hatred of Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Darrin HodgesA nationalist political party spokesman thinks it unlikely that recent attacks at the Newcastle mosque are motivated by religion.

The Newcastle Herald reported yesterday that attacks at the mosque at Wallsend, including one caught on a closed-circuit television camera, had left the city’s Muslim community feeling “vulnerable and scared”.

Australian Protectionist Party spokesman Darrin Hodges [pictured] said yesterday he believed many people were “concerned about what goes on inside” mosques, but the attackers “could just be local drunks”. “I’m a bit suspicious about all that,” Mr Hodges said. “It doesn’t mean they’re doing it because it’s a mosque.”

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