on Friday, March 22, 2013
A priest who has allowed Muslims to pray in his church has told how he has been hit by a barrage of abuse by internet 'trolls'.
St John's Episcopal Church became the first church in the UK to share their building with Muslims after Rev Isaac Poobalan saw members of a neighbouring mosque praying outside in the snow because of a lack of space.
on Saturday, February 16, 2013
A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said: "Two men and a woman entered the mosque via the main entrance and began causing a disturbance and shouting during prayer time. They were also racially abusive when asked to leave the premises."
All are described as young, white and of slim build. The first man was wearing a black woolly hat, a blue and grey tracksuit and black trainers. The second was wearing a black and white knitted hat with plaits down the side, a dark tracksuit top and bottoms with a white stripe down the sides and was carrying a plastic bottle. The girl had long, fair hair and was wearing a cream coat with a fur-trimmed hood.
Anyone with information is asked to contact PC Claire McMahon, of Hartlepool Police, on the non-emergency number 101.
Hartlepool Mail, 15 February 2013
See also Northern Echo, 15 February 2013
The same mosque was targeted by the English Defence League in a graffiti attack in 2010.
on Thursday, November 22, 2012
ENGAGE has posted a detailed reponse to yesterday's appalling media coverage of the Office of the Children's Commissioner's interim report on "child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups". The Daily Mail, for example, featured the headline "Anger as sex abuse report 'turns blind eye to Asian gangs'".
For comments by Sue Berelowitz, deputy children's commissioner for England and co-author of the report, see her article in the Guardian. And "Children's commissioner defends child sex abuse report", also in the Guardian.
See also Yakoub Islam's response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's article in the Mail.
on Thursday, November 8, 2012
Keith Meredith, of Holgate Road, Dagenham, and Lee Bates, of Seymer Road, Romford, both 18, appeared at Romford Magistrates Court on October 16.
They were among 25 to 30 youths seen and heard shouting abuse at the Tower Hamlets schoolboys during a Daggers Against Racism game with Bradford FC, held in Victoria Road, Dagenham.
The ringleaders of the disorder, which happened on March 3 this year, were ejected from the stadium by police and club security, but only identified through CCTV and arrested later to avoid disrupting the match.
Meredith was found guilty of a racially aggravated section 5 public order act offence and sentenced to a three-year football banning order, £100 fine and ordered to pay £315 in court costs.
Bates, who admitted a section 5 public order act offence, was sentenced to a three year football banning order, £135 fine and ordered to pay £115 in court costs.
On July 29 two boys, aged 16 and 17, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated public order offences. They both received a four-month referral order to a local youth offending scheme and were ordered to pay £75 each in costs. A further 11 people received varying bans direct from the football club following the chants.
Steve Thompson, managing director of Daggers, said: "We welcome the sentences given to Lee Bates and Keith Meredith.
"We aim to provide a club facility that caters for families and gives everyone the opportunity to enjoy the match without the disruption of intolerance or bigotry.
"The club will continue to do everything in its power to take appropriate action against anyone who chooses to be involved in such abuse."
Barking & Dagenham Post, 6 November 2012
See also Metropolitan Police news report, 25 October 2012
You can read an eyewitness account of the abuse to which the Tower Hamlets schoolchildren were subjected here. Racism and threats of violence were accompanied by chants of "E-E-EDL, E-E-EDL".
on Saturday, August 25, 2012
The men, who are associated with the English Defence League (EDL), shouted a highly inflammatory religious chant at Middlesbrough railway station. They were convicted of religiously aggravated disorder yesterday after a two-day trial at Teesside Magistrates' Court.
The men – who represented themselves during the trial – shouted the abuse at the station on Saturday, December 10, 2011. The group was in Middlesbrough to watch Boro play Brighton, but when they decided it was too cold they visited several pubs in the town instead. They then went on to the railway station, the court heard.
PC Andrew Ward, of British Transport Police, told how he approached the "drunk", "noisy" group three times telling them to calm down. He said the group was singing EDL chants and when the men started singing a highly inflammatory religious chant he decided to eject them from the station.
He added that as the group left, one of the men, Christopher Caswell, 32, became aggressive and raised his fist. The officer responded by spraying him with CS spray and called for police back-up.
As PC Ward walked from the court after giving evidence there was hissing from the public gallery.
When asked to describe an Islamic person in police interview, 22-year-old Jak Beasley said: "Scum".
All men denied two charges of religiously aggravated harassment and using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment alarm or distress.
They said they were associated to the EDL in some way and said some EDL chants as well as the national anthem had been sung. But they all strongly denied singing the highly inflammatory chant in question. Paul Ross, 47, who told the court he runs the South-west Durham Division of the EDL, said the group was just having a "bit of banter".
Throughout the court proceedings, the defendants were repeatedly told by the chairman of the bench, Elizabeth Hutchinson, to remain quiet and to stop treating the proceedings as a "big joke".
EDL supporters gathered in and around the court yesterday along with a strong police presence.
Following the verdict, onlookers in the public gallery shouted the conviction was a "stitch up", while the defendants shook their heads and continued to express their innocence.
Beasley, of Teal Street, Bishop Auckland, Caswell, of West Auckland Road, Darlington, and Ross, of Auckland Wind, Shildon, along with Shaun Bunting, 33, of Fenhall Green, Newton Aycliffe, Ross Williams, 23, of Ebberston Court, Spennymoor, and Dean Spence, 22, of Yew Close, Spennymoor, will be sentenced on September 14.
Evening Gazette, 25 August 2012
The EDL's response ("The NE EDL refuse to be silenced, we WILL speak out against Islam no matter what the police and authorities do to us, no matter how much they hound us we will never be silenced and will protest whenever and wherever we want") can be consulted here. They are calling for a national demonstration in the North East to protest against the convictions.
One EDL supporter produces a familiar argument in defence of his right to abuse Muslims: "Religion is a choice, to what race you're born is not – that's why to criticise someone because of their race is wrong but to criticise someone's choice and religion is my right to freedom of speech."
Perhaps he should try and explain that distinction to Paul Ross.
