Ryan Erfani-Ghettani exposes the double-talk of the English Defence League.
Seeing yobs get punished helps us to move on, say Leicester Muslim family who suffered years of abuse
A family who were forced to flee their home after years of racist abuse said seeing their tormentors punished in court has helped them move on.
Sabana and Salim Amod left Leicester’s Saffron Lane in June, after two years of abuse and vandalism. Yobs smashed the windows of their Helmsley Road home, slashed their car tyres, sprayed racist graffiti about their Muslim faith on their front door and threw stones at the couple and their children. Several people have now appeared in court charged with racially-aggravated offences.
Stoke-on-Trent mosque arsonists jailed
Two men have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of deliberately setting fire to a Stoke-on-Trent mosque.
Ex-soldier Simon Beech, 23, and Garreth Foster, 29, both from Stoke, were found guilty of setting fire to Hanley’s Regent Road mosque on 3 December. The pair both denied running a pipe into the building from a nearby gas meter in a bid to spark an explosion at the mosque, which suffered about £50,000 damage as a result of the fire.
Speaking after the verdicts were delivered, Rana Tufail, a member of the mosque committee, said it was “difficult” to describe the arson attack. He said: “It is a community project. They have put their soul into it. They have put their earnings into it and they [Beech and Foster] tried to destroy it. We are happy that it’s still standing.”
Ch Supt Bernie O’Rielly, from Staffordshire Police, added that he had no doubts that the pair’s intention was to “blow the mosque up”. “Without doubt that would have caused hate in the community, division in the community and broken down all the cohesion and good work we do,” he said. “The community around this area have been an absolute credit. They’ve acted with such restraint and so dignified in the face of such provocation.”
See also “EDL soldier and crony jailed for 10 years for Stoke mosque arson”, UAF news report, 8 December 2011
The IRR’s recent study The new geographies of racism: Stoke-on-Trent provides some useful context to the case. It can be downloaded here.
Church fury over opening of McDonald’s on Christmas Day as Muslim manager is drafted in
Church leaders have hit out at a branch of McDonald’s which is to open on Christmas Day. A Muslim branch manager has been drafted in by the fast food outlet to cover for the usual boss who is taking the day off and staff have volunteered to work that day for seven hours.
Parish Rvd Wayne Stillwell said the decision to open the branch showed “the continuing decline of Christendom in this country” and his reaction was “one of great sadness”. He added: “I’m sad that we’ve got to this point in our society where something that means as much as Christmas seems to mean so little. It shows the continuing decline of Christendom in our country.”
Hanley mosque arson accused’s links to far right parties
One of the men accused of setting fire to a Stoke-on-Trent mosque was a member of the British National Party (BNP) and English Defence League (EDL).
Simon Beech was a serving soldier with the 2nd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, based at Weeton Barracks near Preston, Lancashire, when he is alleged to have set fire to the City Central Mosque in Regent Road, Hanley, in the early hours of December 3 last year.
He is accused of entering the mosque, which was still under construction, with his co-accused Garreth Foster. The Crown Prosecution Service allege the pair were responsible for starting a blaze on the ground floor and feeding a gas pipe upstairs, from a neighbouring property.
CAIR welcomes bias charge for attack on Muslim teen
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) today welcomed the “ethnic intimidation” charge brought against the alleged assailant of a Muslim student in Saline, Mich., who was allegedly called a “terrorist” and punched in the face while walking near his high school.
Police learned of the attack after being alerted to a video of the incident posted on Facebook. The alleged assailant was arraigned on one count of ethnic intimidation. If convicted, he faces a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of $5,000.
Europe’s far right focuses on fighting Islam
The Associated Press reports.
Attack on West Bank mosque
Anonymous vandals hurled a burning tire at the entrance of a mosque in Brukin, a village south-east of Qalqilyah. They also spray painted the walls and smashed the windshields of two nearby vehicles. The police have launched an investigation into the suspected hate crime.
See also Haaretz, 7 December 2011
Marc Lynch interviews Rached Ghannouchi
A leading western expert on Islamism interviews the head of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party.
Foreign Policy, 5 December 2011
See also “Tunisia Islamist leader stresses right to freedom of faith”, Al Arabiya, 7 December 2011
Newly elected New Zealand MP calls for ban on veil
The New Zeland press has been covering the political philosophy of Richard Prosser, one of the eight New Zealand First candidates elected to parliament in the recent elections.
In addition to bringing back military service and arming taxi drivers (“His views sound like those of a redneck to me”, the director of the Taxi Federation responds) Prosser proposes a ban on the “burqa”.
His message to veiled Muslim women is: “This is my culture and my country, not yours. Get some respect and conform.”