A charity involved in a dispute over a Scout hut says it cannot afford the rental terms it is being offered for an alternative building.

Demonstrations have been taking place in Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, for several months against plans by As-Salaam to turn the hut into a community centre.

Earlier this month, city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby agreed protesters from the Forgotten Estates Committee would be given the lease on the hut for two years, rent-free.

The Muslim charity was offered another city council-owned building, the Raven Centre, next to Thurnby Lodge Community Centre, where the charity has met for prayers for the past three years. As-Saalam members said they had been offered two rental agreements, neither of which they could afford.

Mohamed Lockhat, As-Salaam's imam, said the group was given the choice of a long-term lease of 125 years, with a rent of £1 a year and an initial payment of the building's commercial value of about £160,000 (about £190,000 with VAT), or a second option of about £16,000 a year rent (about £19,000 including VAT).

However, Sir Peter denied this was the case. He said many offers had been put to the group as "a starting point" and that negotiations were ongoing.

Mr Lockhat said: "They said here are your two options on paper and we simply said those are not possible. They then said that we could possibly negotiate to about half of that, but not much and not anything near what we were expecting to pay for the Scout hut.

"We are a charity and cannot afford to be being paying commercial values. It is not fair. They (the property department at the council) are still working on a price, but it's not coming down anywhere near to what we can afford, or what we agreed to pay for the Scout hut."

At a meeting at the community centre on Tuesday, several people pledged support to As-Salaam. Nizam Hussein, a member of the advisory board for the trust, said:

"We would like everybody here today in support of As-Salaam to put pressure on Mr Soulsby to resolve this as soon as possible, taking into consideration the offer that has been made to us and to come up with something that's a bit fairer. We think that for the centre we have been offered, £750 a year is fair because the building is about a third bigger. We have been very tolerant."

Leicester Mercury, 18 January 2013

See also "Persecution of Thurnby Lodge Muslims continues despite 'resolution'", Leicester UAF, 7 January 2013

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A curry maker was left stunned after being refused a market stall – because his products were halal.

Jeff Thomson, founder of Curried Away, asked for a plot on Bury's Artisan Markets. But he was shocked when Paul Barrah, who operates the markets on behalf of the town's council, replied to his email simply saying: "Hi, I'm sorry but my markets don't use halal products. Regards, Paul."

Bury council has now launched an investigation into the matter and say they will meet Mr Barrah who organises the market days in Ramsbottom, Prestwich, Radcliffe and Whitefield, to discuss the issue.

Jeff, 62, described how he contacted Mr Barrah, saying that his business was an Asian food market selling curries and snacks to take home or eat on go.

He wrote that all his food was halal – food prepared to make it permissible to eat under Islamic law. Jeff, who is Scottish, said: "I was looking around for markets to host my stall for next year. I picked this market, emailed them and got the response back that they don't do halal.

"I was shocked because I have not come across this before. All the markets I have dealt with in the past, this hasn't been an issue. In these days of ethnic, cultural and religious integration it surprised and disappointed me to find a market operator who doesn't accept halal products. I am pleased Bury council seems to have taken the matter on board and plans to meet their market contractor."

Jeff, who used to live in Bolton, and now lives in Burnley, launched Curried Away in 2009 after retiring from a 40-year career in PR and marketing. He already trades at markets in Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Ashton-under-Lyne – and was looking to expand by selling his food in Bury.

A council spokesman said: "Bury council currently has a contract with Mr Barrah who operates Farmers Markets in Ramsbottom, Prestwich, Radcliffe and Whitefield. The current contract runs until March 2013. We will be investigating this matter and will be seeking to meet with Mr Barrah before the next market on January 13 in Ramsbottom to discuss the issue and seek his views.

"Although it is considered that he is not in breach of his existing contract we would consider assessing the wording of any new contracts issued after March 2013 to ensure that they fall in line with the council's equality policies."

Mr Barrah declined to comment.

Manchester Evening News, 24 December 2012

You'll note that the report is headlined, in typical taboid press style, "Fury as Bury market boss tells halal curry maker: Sorry, you can't have a stall". It seems that nobody can express concern about anti-Muslim discrimination, even in the mildest and most reasonable terms, without being accused of reacting with "fury".

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The Nottingham-based Building For The Future blog has drawn its readers' attention to this leaflet, which has been distributed by the British National Party in Luton.

As the BFTF writer notes, the flyer "appeared to have come straight out of 1930s Germany (and BFTF does not use that analogy lightly) – with the exception that instead of hate caricatures of Jews, it was Muslims that the BNP were now choosing to portray as the evil menace in our midst".

The writer wants to know whether "this qualifies as an inciteful document and should not be allowed" and has "asked the local council and MP what (if anything) would happen if the BNP started distributing flyers like this in Nottingham".

The answer is – probably very little. In August this year a former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate named Linda Jack called for the BNP to be prosecuted for distributing the leaflet in Luton but got nowhere.

If the leaflet were directed against Jews rather than Muslims there would be a realistic prospect of the BNP being charged with inciting racial hatred. But Muslims are not covered by racial hatred legislation and have to rely on the religious hatred law, which is completely useless. On the one occasion that a BNP member has been prosecuted for inciting religious hatred he was inevitably acquitted.

There is an urgent need to amend the law against incitement to religious hatred so that it does provide effective protection for the Muslim community. However, even in the current situation there is no excuse for the police refusing to take action over leaflets like this. There would appear to be good grounds for Muslims who have received the flyer to demand that the BNP should be prosecuted for religiously aggravated harassment.

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The Daily Mail reports that a drunken couple of Polish origin, Beata Jopek and her partner Maciej Matysniak, racially abused two hijab-wearing Muslim women, Hana Farah and Ithil Ibrahim, on a Leeds-Sheffield train.

It was Matysniak who first approached the two women and told them: "Shut the f*** up", why are you so "f****** loud, aren't you embarrassed about how loud you are? You can't even speak English."

Jopek then told the women to "go back to your own country", screaming "no-one wants you here, you are f****** disgusting". She shouted at one of them: "Take that f****** thing off, a white person wouldn't do what you are doing." She ripped the headscarf from one of the women and when restrained by a guard said: "If I lose the baby I'm going to kill the black b****."

Jopek narrowly escaped a prison sentence at Sheffield Crown Court after both women said they would prefer that their assailants be made to recognise what they did was wrong rather than go to jail. Jopek was given a three-month sentence suspended for 12 months and 120 hours of unpaid community work. Matysniak was given a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work.

So what headline did the Mail choose for their report? "White bigots launched racist tirade against Muslims", perhaps? Of course not. Instead, we get: "Pregnant Polish migrant told British Muslim women wearing hijabs to 'go back to your own country' in drunken tirade."

Bloody Poles, coming over here and abusing our Muslims. Don't they realise this is the job of decent British newspapers like the Daily Mail?

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