Shockjock Alan Jones has been unsuccessful in his latest attempt to have a lawsuit claiming he racially vilified Sydney's Muslims three days before the Cronulla riots in 2005, dismissed.

In those proceedings, father-of-eight Sam Ekermawi, of Moorebank, claims Jones vilified Muslims when he derided "Lebs", "wogs" and "Middle Eastern" people in his breakfast program on 2GB on December 8, 2005.

Jones read out SMS text messages that had been circulating, allegedly triggered by the assault of two volunteer surf lifesavers by men of Middle Eastern appearance on December 4.

It is claimed the text messages were encouraging people to attend a protest rally on December 11, the day of the riots. One message allegedly said: "Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge." "This Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day," it is claimed the message said.

It is alleged that Jones also read an email on air, it said: "Alan, it's not just a few Middle Eastern bastards at the weekend, its thousands. Cronulla is a very long beach and it's been taken over by this scum. It's not a few causing trouble. It's all of them, it's an attitude that you feel whenever you go there, it's just straight out racism against the skippies".

Three days later an estimated 5000 Sydney youths gathered at the beach and fights erupted. The violence spread to Cronulla railway station and on to a train. Police arrested 51 people and charged them with assault and riot.

More than a dozen men served jail time, including a Penrith man who assaulted Lebanese men while wearing a singlet with the words "Mohammed was a camel-raping faggot".

Jones and 2GB tried to have Mr Ekermawi's case thrown out on a legal technicality. The attempt failed, with the three-member appeal panel of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal ruling on November 30 that the case should continue.

Mr Ekermawi first lodged his complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Board in 2005, and seven years later he is still waiting for it to be heard in the ADT.

It is not the only case to claim Jones and 2GB racially vilified Muslims prior to the Cronulla riots. In October Jones and 2GB were ordered to apologise on air for a separate racist rant where he called Sydney's Lebanese Muslims "vermin" who "infest our shores" and "rape" and "pillage" our nation.

He has not yet apologised.

Daily Telegraph, 4 November 2012

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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.

Press Association, 27 November 2012

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Panama City police are investigating what appears to be a fire bombing in the Forest Park area.

It happened about 3:45 Wednesday morning at a house on Timber Lane in phase-1 of the subdivision called The Woods.

The owner's son said he heard a loud noise outside of his bedroom window, looked out and saw the ground below on-fire. He called 9-1-1, then put out the fire.

Police say they smelled gasoline and found what appeared to be a broken and burned mason jar, lying on the ground below the window.

The home is owned by a local medical professional named Aziz Ahmad. 5-adults were inside at the time.

Ahmad's son, Muhsim talked with us. "This could have burned down our whole house. This could have killed everyone inside, which is a very dreadful thought. Something like this shouldn't happen to anyone in this community."

Panama City police and the State Fire Marshal's office are investigating the case as an arson.

But a Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization called the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling on the F-B-I to investigate the incident as a Hate Crime.

WJHG-TV, 15 August 2012

See also "CAIR asks FBI to probe firebomb attack on Fla. Muslim family", CAIR press release, 15 August 2012

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James Macintyre examines the double standards behind the prime minister's differential treatment of Sayeeda Warsi and Jeremy Hunt.

Comment is Free, 5 June 2012

If anything, Macintyre is too soft in his criticism of what to any independent observer looks like the result of blatant anti-Muslim bigotry directed against Warsi by the Tory right. The recent article in the Telegraph, trying to associate Warsi with Hizb ut-Tahrir, is in the classic tradition of Islamophobic witch-hunting. It's only surprising that Andrew Gilligan isn't on the case.

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