Three men jailed for their 9-month campaign of abuse against a Muslim colleague

Three men have been jailed for three years for a campaign of racial harassment against a Muslim colleague.

Amjid Mehmood was tied to railings and force-fed bacon while a rucksack with protruding wires was put on his locker, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Fellow road maintenance workers Lee McDermott, of Rowley Regis, and Sean Melaney and Phillip Skett, both from Birmingham, admitted racial harassment.

The nine-month campaign of abuse came to light when Mr Mehmood told police.

McDermott, 31, from Blue Stone Walk, Sean Melaney, 28, of Steatham Grove, Kingstanding, and Skett, 39, of College Road, Erdington, were each jailed for three years.

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Everyone’s a Muslim!

Apparently, the Dhummies have unearthed a new fact(oid): Pastor Jeremiah Wright is a former Muslim!

Then again everyone’s a Muslim!

The Muslim bus driver who told his passenger to get off so he could pray

Turns out that “Muslim news story” was garbage.

‘Fitna’ farce

I will probably be updating this post with responses from around the blogopshere.

So, Geert Wilders has finally released Fitna.

It’s a fairly standard Dhummi screed about Evil Muslims Taking Over. You’ve seen it all before if you use the internet and show any kind of interest in ‘Muslim news’ stories. Like Willow, I don’t see the point in writing reviews for it, especially when Wilders is one of those people who likes to prattle on about ‘Islamic fascism’.

Reviews you might want to read:
Ali Eteraz
Aziz Poonawalla
Leon in Amsterdam (via JD)
Amir Butler
Yusuf Smith

The Dutch government is distancing itself from the film and praised the response of Dutch Muslims, who are calling on other Muslims to leave Dutch citizens alone. FaithWorld takes a closer look at the Dutch Muslim response, contrasting it with the response of some Danish Muslims. The Economist suggests European Muslims will be the biggest ‘winners’ if things remain calm. The Slovenians, currently holding the EU presidency, also criticised the film. There are some protests in Pakistan (which has strong economic ties with the Netherlands). Iran and Indonesia have released official responses to the film. So too the UAE and OIC. Indonesia ha banned the film and Geert Wilders from entering the country. Malaysian Muslims would like a boycott of Dutch goods. Jordanian media organisations are looking at legal steps and have urged their government to review links with the Netherlands.

The leader of the now disbanded Al-Muhajiroun, Omar Bakri Mohammad, says the film resembles ‘jihadi’ propaganda videos.

Live Leak have pulled the film citing ‘credible threarts’. (It has been suggested bloggers put the movie on their blogs to test this claim.) One of the Danish cartoonists is threatening to sue Wilders over copyright infringement. The Dutch owner of a clip used by Wilders is also considering legal action. A Dutch Moroccan rapper is threatening a legal response if his picture is not removed from the film (good luck — the original film is now all over the internet). Dutch businesses have warned Wilders they may also sue if any Muslim countries go through with their threat to boycott Dutch goods.

Bloggers drawing “bizarre, mainly racist, conclusions” from assault on Anglican priest

Earlier this month, an Anglican priest was beaten up quite badly by a group of ‘Asian youths’ in east London. Canon Michael Ainsworth was left with cuts and bruises after an attack by a group of boys in his own churchyard. The police said it was a ‘faith hate’ crime; some of the boys had repeatedly shouted ‘fucking priest’ as they beat him up.

Inevitably, there were complaints about ‘political correctness’: calling the boys ‘Asian’ was obfuscating the fact that Muslim persecution of Christians had reached the shores of Britain. Med Mel took it one step further at her Spectator blog: the “jihadi nature of the attack on of the attack on Canon Ainsworth”, she wrote, “is unmistakeable”.

Except, of course, Med Mel, Damien Thompson and lots of other right-wing commentators and bloggers had forgot to ask the Canon what he thought of the vicious assault. A local paper, the East London Advertiser did, however, interview Canon Ainsworth:

“We must respond calmly, and not jump to conclusions…” Coping with the hysteria from “wild” national press coverage had been “almost worse than being attacked.” He felt helpless as his church was besieged by cameramen and reporters after the story broke last Friday. “They have their own agendas,” said Mr Ainsworth, “as do the bloggers, both professional and amateur, who are using the story for their own ends and drawing bizarre, mainly racist, conclusions.”

Perhaps Med Mel’s fellow Spectator blogger Clive Davis could also send her the link to the interview seeing as though he noted it at his blog? Then again, given her previous efforts in documenting the jihad in Britain, she will probably dismiss the Canon’s interview as an example of self-hating dhimmitude.

I do, however, think such incidents ought to force us to think more closely the intersect between race, class and identity (which is what religion is such cases). If, as Inayat Bunglawala argues, the assault involving Canon Ainsworth was an example of drunken yobs losing control rather than ‘religiously motivated’ what about other similar incidents where someone from a ‘minority’ group is the victim? The problem, I think, is that we are not necessarily motivated do something (good or bad) by a single factor*.

Those interested might be think about (re)visiting some material on this subject.

*Which is probably why doing something fisabilillah is held in such high regards within an Islamic ethical framework.

OIC writes 60-page report to combat Islamophobia in the West. Has it ever reported on abuses committed by its members states?

Apparently, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) has announced a plan to tackle Islamophobia in the West.

Has the OIC ever produced a report on the numerous abuses committed by its members states against their own populations, or the situation of religious and cultural minorities in those countries?

Islamic (Arabic) terminology that has entered popular culture (with negative connotations)

1. Jihad — mindless killing of infidels and heretics.

2. Fatwa — an order to kill, especially from a religious leader.

3. Sharia — totalitarian system in which every transgression is punished by beheadings, floggings and stoning of women.

4. Hijab — oppressive piece of clothing, preferrably black.

5. Mullah — male religious leader, always bearded, prone to ranting against Jews and America.

Of course there is no such as racism against Muslims because “Islam is not a race”

A 32-year-old woman who stabbed an Asian teenager she called a terrorist has been jailed for six years.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Mary McKay admitted attempting to murder Tarik Husan, 17, in Tollcross Road, Glasgow, on 10 September, 2007.

Lord Menzies said: “It seems to me this was a completely unprovoked attack on an unarmed stranger in the public street without any explainable motive.”

McKay will be supervised for two years after her release.

She stabbed Mr Husan in the chest and arm at a bus stop in Glasgow and told him “you’re all terrorists”.

[...]

The court heard that after the attack she walked into a shop still clutching the knife and waited for the police to arrive.

“I just stabbed a guy with the same colour of skin as a terrorist,” she later told police.

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“If this onslaught was about Jews, I would be looking for my passport”

Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian columnist, wrote the following in October 2006 following the media reaction to Jack Straw’s comments on the veil:

I’ve been trying to imagine what it must be like to be a Muslim in Britain. I guess there’s a sense of dread about switching on the radio or television, even about walking into a newsagents. What will they be saying about us today? Will we be under assault for the way we dress? Or the schools we go to, or the mosques we build? Who will be on the front page: a terror suspect, a woman in a veil or, the best of both worlds, a veiled terror suspect.

Christopher Howse is a silly man

Professor [Tariq] Ramadan shares a first name with Tariq bin Ziyad, the commander of the Muslim army that conquered Spain in 711. An heroic namesake to live up to, indeed.

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