But it is OKAY TO LIE - it's Taquiya!
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Fifth columns - Muslim hate monitor to lose backing
Telegraph
Muslim hate monitor to lose backing
Ministers end funding for body that claimed 'wave of attacks’ against Islam .
Fiyaz Mughal of Tell Mama. Photo: REX FEATURES
7:00AM BST 09 Jun 2013
A controversial project claiming to measure anti-Muslim attacks will not have its government grant renewed after police and civil servants raised concerns about its methods.
The project, called Tell Mama, claimed that there had been a “sustained wave of attacks and intimidation” against British Muslims after the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby, with 193 “Islamophobic incidents” reported to it, rising to 212 by last weekend.
The group’s founder, Fiyaz Mughal, said he saw “no end to this cycle of violence”, describing it as “unprecedented”. The claims were unquestioningly repeated in the media.
Tell Mama and Mr Mughal did not mention, however, that 57 per cent of the 212 reports referred to activity that took place only online, mainly offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook, or that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had not been verified. Not all the online abuse even originated in Britain.
Contrary to the group’s claim of a “cycle of violence” and a “sustained wave of attacks”, only 17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the physical targeting of people and there were no attacks on anyone serious enough to require medical treatment.
Fiyaz Mughal of Tell Mama. Photo: REX FEATURES
7:00AM BST 09 Jun 2013
A controversial project claiming to measure anti-Muslim attacks will not have its government grant renewed after police and civil servants raised concerns about its methods.
The project, called Tell Mama, claimed that there had been a “sustained wave of attacks and intimidation” against British Muslims after the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby, with 193 “Islamophobic incidents” reported to it, rising to 212 by last weekend.
The group’s founder, Fiyaz Mughal, said he saw “no end to this cycle of violence”, describing it as “unprecedented”. The claims were unquestioningly repeated in the media.
Tell Mama and Mr Mughal did not mention, however, that 57 per cent of the 212 reports referred to activity that took place only online, mainly offensive postings on Twitter and Facebook, or that a further 16 per cent of the 212 reports had not been verified. Not all the online abuse even originated in Britain.
Contrary to the group’s claim of a “cycle of violence” and a “sustained wave of attacks”, only 17 of the 212 incidents, 8 per cent, involved the physical targeting of people and there were no attacks on anyone serious enough to require medical treatment.
There have been a further 12 attacks on Islamic buildings, three of them serious, including a probable arson attack on a Muslim community centre in north London, which burned it to the ground.
Tell Mama supporters launched a furious campaign of protest against The Sunday Telegraph after it disclosed the breakdown last week, with round-robin emails to the newspaper accusing it of behaviour “better suited to the days of 1930s Germany”.
However, The Sunday Telegraph has now learned that even before Woolwich, the communities minister, the Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, called Mr Mughal to a meeting and said that Tell Mama’s grant would not be renewed.
The organisation has received a total of £375,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) since last year.
“Mr Mughal was giving data on attacks to DCLG which wasn’t stacking up when it was cross-referenced with other reports by Acpo [the Association of Chief Police Officers],” said one source closely involved in counter-extremism.
“He was questioned by DCLG civil servants and lost his temper. He was subsequently called in by Don Foster and told that he would receive no more money.”
A senior Liberal Democrat source confirmed the sequence of events, saying: “There was a bit of a spat. He was called in and told that Acpo had cast doubt on his figures. He was told that he would be closely monitored for the remaining period of the grant and that there would be no more money.”
A DCLG spokesman confirmed that Tell Mama’s funding would not be renewed and refused to deny that officials had raised concerns about its methods.
Tell Mama claimed in March that anti-Muslim crime was “rising”, even though the group had only been in operation at that stage for a year and had no previous figures to compare with.
Other figures, collected by the police, show that hate crime in mainly Muslim areas has fallen in the past 10 years. The only large force that collects figures on specifically anti-Muslim crime, the Metropolitan Police, reported an 8.5 per cent fall in such crimes between 2009 and 2012.
There was a spike in anti-Muslim incidents after the killing of Drummer Rigby. However, contrary to Tell Mama’s claims that it was “unprecedented”, the Met’s assistant commissioner, Cressida Dick, told MPs last week that it was “slightly less” than after previous terror attacks.
“There has not been such a very big increase in attacks as we might have feared,” she said. Mr Mughal himself has now admitted to the BBC that the number of physical attacks was “small”.
Tell Mama has also been using its budget to threaten members of the public with libel actions for criticising it on Twitter.
In mid-May, before Woolwich, one Jewish activist, Ambrosine Chetrit, received a threatening letter from solicitors after she tweeted that “Tell Mama are sitting on Twitter on the EDL hashtag, threatening anyone and everyone whose comments they do not like about Islam”.
Tell Mama also objected to a tweet in which Ms Chetrit said it was “trying to close down pro-Israel [Twitter] accounts daily”.
Other recipients of legal threats at the same time include Atma Singh, a former race adviser to the then Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who received a legal letter from Tell Mama after tweeting that it “gives a platform to Islamists”.
Tell Mama did not claim that either of these individuals was racist or anti-Muslim. But it said their tweets were false and “defamatory” of Mr Mughal, had “damaged” his reputation, causing him “distress and embarrassment”, and demanded immediate apologies and damages. Up to four other people are believed to have received similar threats.
The letters were written by Farooq Bajwa, a solicitor who has acted for a number of Islamists and Islamist sympathisers, including the Palestinian radical leader Raed Salah and the Respect MP George Galloway.
The letters to Mr Singh and Ms Chetrit were sent to their private home addresses, neither of which are in the public domain. Ms Chetrit’s lawyer, Mark Lewis, who has acted for many phone-hacking victims, has reported Mr Bajwa and Tell Mama to the police after they refused to say how they obtained the information.
“I have been instructed to resist the claim,” said Mr Lewis. “It has no merit. I have not had any response as to how my client’s name and address were obtained.”
Mr Singh said: “I find it absurd that someone can threaten people on this kind of basis and use libel in this political way. This is nothing to do with Islamophobia – they are just trying to shut down debate.”
Ms Chetrit said: “It is very worrying and scary. All the people who have been threatened by Tell Mama are pro-Israeli.”
The DCLG claimed that Tell Mama’s funding was always due to cease in September 2013 and that Mr Foster was “very impressed” by the “progress” the group had made.
However, the funding of Tell Mama was described as “ongoing” in the Government’s “hate crime action plan” last year and only in November Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, announced that £214,000 of “new” and “further” funding had been granted to Tell Mama.
Mr Mughal said: “The meeting with DCLG officials related to the publication of 2012 anti-Muslim prejudice figures and having an independent review of those figures, which is good practice.
"This was agreed and has always been part of the process. The 'loss of temper’ did not relate to the methodology of data collection.”
Mr Mughal said that no public money had been used to issue the libel threats.
He said: “We will defend the right of all people to express their identities and their support for countries and groups freely.
However, we have the right to defend the integrity of our work when people broadcast [on Twitter] comments that are simply untrue and highly damaging about us.”
He declined to explain how the private addresses had been obtained, but said it was “within the law.”
http://tellmamauk.org/about-us/
About Us
For many years now the Muslim communities in the UK have suffered anti-Muslim attacks and expressed a need for a nationally coordinated means of reporting such incidents. The MAMA Project will provide a means for such incidents to be reported, recorded and analysed, working to ensure this data is accurate and reliable and the victims and witnesses affected receive support.
What is MAMA?
Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks (MAMA) is a secure and reliable service that allows people from across England to report any form of Anti-Muslim abuse. We have created a unique portal where you may address your concerns and record any attack that you experience as a result of your Muslim faith or someone perceiving you to be Muslim. By using our ‘Report an Attack’ section, you can describe the details of the abuse you suffered, whether verbal or physical, and then add in the location of the attack so that we can effectively map incidents across England. We can also refer you for support if you have been a victim of an Anti-Muslim attack.
Reporting an attack to us is incredibly easy. You can do so via the Telephone, Email, SMS, Facebook or Twitter. Once we have your information secured, one of our trained case workers will call you to discuss the issue further and ensure we have all the details we require to record the incident accurately and offer you our support.
Who is this service aimed at?
This service is for anyone who suffers, or has suffered, an attack / incident as a result of their Muslim faith (or perceived Muslim faith). TheMAMA project can also record attacks by Muslims against other Muslims, which may be due to inter-religious issues, and caseworkers will be able to log these attacks specifically so that a variety of issues can be mapped and support provided for different cases of anti-Muslim attacks.
How will it benefit you?
If Anti-Muslim attacks are ever to be stopped, it is essential that you report any crime committed against you or that you have witnessed take place on another person. By reporting attacks, you can help us create a rich picture of where more needs to be done to tackle Anti-Muslim hate crime throughout the UK and this allows us to map the areas of the country in which Anti- Muslim attacks are most frequent. This will enable local police forces and social support services to target their resources most efficiently and effectively to ensure the community benefits from better safety and security. We will work together with communities to try to put an end to faith-based hate crime and provide the space for Muslims to speak freely and openly about anti-Muslim hate crime and gain the support they may need.
What are the classifications of attack?
Attacks are classified as follows:
1. Extreme Violence – i.e, a violent attack on a person / property that has the potential to cause the loss of life or Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH).
2. Assault – i.e, a physical attack against a person which does not pose a threat to their life and is not GBH. This includes objects being thrown at someone, even if the object misses.
3. Damage and Desecration of Property – i.e, this includes anti-Muslim graffiti being daubed on Muslim property and damage to vehicles motivated by anti-Muslim hatred.
4. Threats – Any clear and specific threat, whether physical, verbal or written. If the threat is not clear and specific then the incident should be recorded as Abusive Behaviour.
5. Abusive Behaviour – Verbal or written anti-Muslim abuse.
6. Anti-Muslim Literature – Mass produced and mass mailed literature with anti-Muslim content.
You can classify your report under one or more of the above headings and there is also an opportunity for you to explain in detail to MAMAwhat happened. For example, you may have suffered threats and abusive behaviour and then you may have been subject to an assault. If you perceive that this has been because of your Muslim faith (perceived or real), you would mark the threats, abusive behaviour and assault boxes on the ‘Report an Attack’ page. Multiple issues can therefore be reported. If you struggle to classify the incident yourself, our caseworkers will be happy to assist you with this.
Speech
Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) speech
Organisation:
Department for Communities and Local Government
Delivered on: 24 January 2013Published: 24 January 2013Policy:Bringing people together in strong, united communitiesMinister:The Rt Hon Baroness Warsi
Speech given by the Rt Hon Baroness Warsi to Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks).Originally given at Tell MAMA fundraising dinner, London. This is the text of the speech as drafted, which may differ slightly from the delivered version.
Introduction
It’s nearly 2 years to the day since I made that speech about Islamophobia.
At the time I talked about the scourge of anti-Muslim hatred.
From violence on the streets to vitriol online.
And, dare I say it, derogatory comments at the dinner table…
When I said that Islamophobia had ‘passed the dinner table test’.
I meant anti-Muslim sentiment had become so socially acceptable, it could be found even in the most civilised of settings.
I got a fair amount of stick for making that statement.
There were those who denied the problem existed.
There were those who said talking about it was dangerous.
But let me tell you what’s really dangerous:
It’s when people are treated differently because they hold a different religious belief.
It’s when a country turns a blind eye towards that discrimination.
And it’s when we allow a perception of a people to become so entrenched that extremists are able to capitalise on it.
Because any form of prejudice, bigotry or discrimination is wrong.
It’s unBritish.
And our desire, our duty and our passion to tackle intolerance is what brings us together tonight.
Statistics
Let’s look at the situation today:
The Association of Chief Police Officers has, for the first time, started to disaggregate the hate crimes reported to police in 2011.
And early indications are that 50 to 60% of reported religious hate crimes were anti-Muslim.
I don’t need to give you story after story about the mosque that’s been attacked or the women who have had their headscarf ripped from their heads, or abused for wearing religious dress, or the discrimination in the job market or the online abuse.
MAMA can do that. These are the problems they record and the people they support every day.
Reporting incidents and recording them, as MAMA does, is crucial to tackling this problem.
Not only does the data start to show the extent of the problem.
It also tells agencies where support is needed.
It shows policy makers and authorities where intervention is required.
But it’s early days. The data we have is limited. We need more detailed and consistent and accurate statistics.
So it’s down to everyone to do their bit to identify anti-Muslim hatred and log it.
That’s why, last year, Eric Pickles and I wrote to every mosque registered with the Charity Commission asking them to help to record anti-Muslim incidents.
It’s why this government supports MAMA and the True Vision website for reporting hate crime.
It’s why we have ensured the police record hate crimes based on the 5 strands of equality.
And it’s why we are committed to doing whatever we can about the unacceptable scourge of anti-religious hatred.
Perception of Muslims
But today I want to focus on a problem that is particularly concerning.
Something which I believe is paving the way for anti-Muslim hatred:
The negative perception of Muslims.
An underlying, unfounded mistrust.
A misinformed suspicion of people who follow Islam.
It’s not anti-Muslim hatred itself but it can all too quickly create the conditions for prejudice to become accepted in our society.
Research by the excellent Dr Matthew Goodwin and Dr Chris Allen lifts the lid on this, showing attitudes towards Britain’s Muslims.
Look at their recent polling - indicative data from a recent online YouGov survey.
Just 23% of people said that Islam was NOT a threat to Western civilisation.
And only a mere 24% thought Muslims were compatible with the British way of life - with nearly half of people disagreeing that Muslims were compatible.
Perhaps most disturbingly, nearly half of people polled thought there would be a clash of civilisations between and Muslims and other Britons.
This echoes previous research by Clive Field, whose polls suggested that up to one-fifth of adults were ‘strongly Islamophobic’.
My fear is this: that seeing one community as the ‘other’ is a slippery slope.
That it will enable extremists to advance their twisted interests unchecked.
And I don’t have to remind anyone what happens when an unfounded suspicion of one people can escalate into unspeakable horror.
Myth busting
Now it’s our duty to counteract this perception of Muslims.
To those who say that there is a conflict of being loyal to Britain and a Muslim, you have to look no further than Mohamed Farah.
Our national hero is a practising Muslim.
The double gold medallist saw no conflict between crossing the finish line in the Union Flag and dropping to the ground in prayer.
In fact, he showed how seamlessly religion and patriotism can go together.
He made that point when he curtly told one interviewer ‘look mate, I’m British’.
In fact, British Muslims actually express a stronger affinity with the UK than their non-Muslim counterparts.
As one survey revealed, 83% of Muslims said they were proud to be British, compared to 79% of Britons overall.
And far from being anti-British as some, particularly the far-right, would have you believe.
Thousands of Muslims from the Commonwealth fought alongside the Allies in both the world wars.
These patriots fought and died for the freedoms we all enjoy today.
People like my 2 grandfathers who fought for this country long before my parents came to its shores.
And you will therefore understand why I will not take lessons on loyalty from those on the extreme right.
Who demonstrate the ideology of intolerance – the very fascism that my grandparents fought all those years ago.
So it is our duty to demonstrate our shared history.
And that’s something I’m particularly committed to doing in the build up to the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.
Of course, there are lots of misconceptions about all religions.
There will always be those who manipulate and distort religion for their own ends.
And there will always be those who give these people a platform.
So they can peddle hate and present the ugly face of faith distorted.
What I most object to is when people present the worst interpretation of a faith and compare it to the best characteristics of a nation.
And from that deduce that the faith and the nation are incompatible.
That’s what’s being done in some quarters, and it’s feeding into this negative perception of the religion of Islam.
In 2011, the Prime Minister talked about those who ignore this distinction between Islam and Islamist extremism.
About those who argue that Islam and the West are irreconcilable – a clash of civilisations.
These people, he said, fuel Islamaphobia. And we, like David Cameron, should completely reject their argument.
Media
Sadly, much of this negative narrative is being perpetuated by certain sections of the media.
Research by Dr Chris Allen shows that 74% of people claim that they know ‘nothing or next to nothing about Islam’.
While 64% say what they do know is solely acquired through the media!
His research shows not just the surge in stories about Muslims after 9/11 but the enormous weighting towards negative stories.
Lord Justice Leveson’s report event revealed journalists were encouraged to make up stories about Muslims.
And concluded that the unbalanced reporting of ethnic minorities was endemic.
But there is good news.
We have an excellent – albeit small cohort – of people who are willing to discuss this issue.
People like Peter Oborne, Mehdi Hasan, Ian Birrell, Oliver Wright and others.
Journalists and editors who are willing to devote their column inches to this issue.
And I know many have been brave in covering this story today.
Conclusion
So 2 years ago I spoke about anti-Muslim hatred and was told it didn’t exist.
Two years on, I want us to take stock.
So we can look at the problem and look at what needs to be done.
So we can celebrate the work being done by journalists, by agencies like MAMA , by academics, by police and by politicians.
And where we all vow to come together to tackle this scourge.
I have often said that an attack on a church is an attack on a gurdwara, or a mosque, or a synagogue.
Likewise, I believe an attack on a Muslim is an attack on a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu or a Sikh.
An attack on one faith is an attack on all faiths.
And an attack on faith is an attack on freedom.
And I sincerely wish that on the issue of this hatred, anti-Muslim hatred, it wasn’t me taking on this mantle.
It would be a more powerful message from a non-Muslim, someone for whom this is not personally painful.
The fact is that everyone should have an interest in this issue.
It’s not just a matter for Muslims or a matter for people of faith.
It’s a matter for everyone who cares about Britain being the modern, equal, fair society that we want it to be.
After all, anti-Muslim hatred is a form of prejudice.
And there should be no place in Britain for this prejudice.
I believe things can be better.
I think more can be achieved and I know we can lead on this issue.
As a Foreign Office Minister I know we are respected the world over for our robust stance against hate crime.
Our religious freedoms are the envy of the globe.
Tell Mama supporters launched a furious campaign of protest against The Sunday Telegraph after it disclosed the breakdown last week, with round-robin emails to the newspaper accusing it of behaviour “better suited to the days of 1930s Germany”.
However, The Sunday Telegraph has now learned that even before Woolwich, the communities minister, the Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, called Mr Mughal to a meeting and said that Tell Mama’s grant would not be renewed.
The organisation has received a total of £375,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) since last year.
“Mr Mughal was giving data on attacks to DCLG which wasn’t stacking up when it was cross-referenced with other reports by Acpo [the Association of Chief Police Officers],” said one source closely involved in counter-extremism.
“He was questioned by DCLG civil servants and lost his temper. He was subsequently called in by Don Foster and told that he would receive no more money.”
A senior Liberal Democrat source confirmed the sequence of events, saying: “There was a bit of a spat. He was called in and told that Acpo had cast doubt on his figures. He was told that he would be closely monitored for the remaining period of the grant and that there would be no more money.”
A DCLG spokesman confirmed that Tell Mama’s funding would not be renewed and refused to deny that officials had raised concerns about its methods.
Tell Mama claimed in March that anti-Muslim crime was “rising”, even though the group had only been in operation at that stage for a year and had no previous figures to compare with.
Other figures, collected by the police, show that hate crime in mainly Muslim areas has fallen in the past 10 years. The only large force that collects figures on specifically anti-Muslim crime, the Metropolitan Police, reported an 8.5 per cent fall in such crimes between 2009 and 2012.
There was a spike in anti-Muslim incidents after the killing of Drummer Rigby. However, contrary to Tell Mama’s claims that it was “unprecedented”, the Met’s assistant commissioner, Cressida Dick, told MPs last week that it was “slightly less” than after previous terror attacks.
“There has not been such a very big increase in attacks as we might have feared,” she said. Mr Mughal himself has now admitted to the BBC that the number of physical attacks was “small”.
Tell Mama has also been using its budget to threaten members of the public with libel actions for criticising it on Twitter.
In mid-May, before Woolwich, one Jewish activist, Ambrosine Chetrit, received a threatening letter from solicitors after she tweeted that “Tell Mama are sitting on Twitter on the EDL hashtag, threatening anyone and everyone whose comments they do not like about Islam”.
Tell Mama also objected to a tweet in which Ms Chetrit said it was “trying to close down pro-Israel [Twitter] accounts daily”.
Other recipients of legal threats at the same time include Atma Singh, a former race adviser to the then Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who received a legal letter from Tell Mama after tweeting that it “gives a platform to Islamists”.
Tell Mama did not claim that either of these individuals was racist or anti-Muslim. But it said their tweets were false and “defamatory” of Mr Mughal, had “damaged” his reputation, causing him “distress and embarrassment”, and demanded immediate apologies and damages. Up to four other people are believed to have received similar threats.
The letters were written by Farooq Bajwa, a solicitor who has acted for a number of Islamists and Islamist sympathisers, including the Palestinian radical leader Raed Salah and the Respect MP George Galloway.
The letters to Mr Singh and Ms Chetrit were sent to their private home addresses, neither of which are in the public domain. Ms Chetrit’s lawyer, Mark Lewis, who has acted for many phone-hacking victims, has reported Mr Bajwa and Tell Mama to the police after they refused to say how they obtained the information.
“I have been instructed to resist the claim,” said Mr Lewis. “It has no merit. I have not had any response as to how my client’s name and address were obtained.”
Mr Singh said: “I find it absurd that someone can threaten people on this kind of basis and use libel in this political way. This is nothing to do with Islamophobia – they are just trying to shut down debate.”
Ms Chetrit said: “It is very worrying and scary. All the people who have been threatened by Tell Mama are pro-Israeli.”
The DCLG claimed that Tell Mama’s funding was always due to cease in September 2013 and that Mr Foster was “very impressed” by the “progress” the group had made.
However, the funding of Tell Mama was described as “ongoing” in the Government’s “hate crime action plan” last year and only in November Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, announced that £214,000 of “new” and “further” funding had been granted to Tell Mama.
Mr Mughal said: “The meeting with DCLG officials related to the publication of 2012 anti-Muslim prejudice figures and having an independent review of those figures, which is good practice.
"This was agreed and has always been part of the process. The 'loss of temper’ did not relate to the methodology of data collection.”
Mr Mughal said that no public money had been used to issue the libel threats.
He said: “We will defend the right of all people to express their identities and their support for countries and groups freely.
However, we have the right to defend the integrity of our work when people broadcast [on Twitter] comments that are simply untrue and highly damaging about us.”
He declined to explain how the private addresses had been obtained, but said it was “within the law.”
Note: Five options: started by white Britons, false flag Muslim action to produce false equality of atrocity, turf war between Islamic factions, attack by another ethnic group, eg, Hindus, or an insurance claim fire. RH
Telegraph
Police launch investigation after blaze at Islamic boarding school
Police have launched an investigation after a fire was started in the dead of night at an Islamic boarding school.
Its website says: "The institution helps children to explore and develop their Islamic identity as a natural part of their mental, emotional and personal development.
128 pupils and staff were evacuated and emergency crews were called to the Darul Uloom Islamic School in Foxbury Avenue, Chislehurst, Greater London, last night.
Officers - who attended with London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service - said investigations were at an early stage but that the fire was being treated as suspicious.
The fire affected a small part of a school building, but there was heavy smoke throughout and two men were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.
Today, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from Bromley are investigating a fire at the Darul Uloom Islamic School in Foxbury Avenue, Chislehurst.
"Police, London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service were called to the school at around 2350hrs on Saturday, 8 June.
"Two people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation; they were not taken to hospital.
"There was minor damage to the building.
"Enquiries continue into the circumstances of the fire. At this early stage it is being treated as suspicious."
No arrests have been made.
Today, the school said they did not want to comment yet and were "dealing with the parents".
The £3,000-a-year boarding school was established in 1988 with the purpose of producing "great scholars and Huffaz (people who have memorised the Koran) to preserve and transmit the eternal message of Allah".
Its website says: "The institution helps children to explore and develop their Islamic identity as a natural part of their mental, emotional and personal development.
"The school aims to prepare Muslim students to be good Muslims and responsible citizens; to embed in the student a sense of discipline; to enable them to grow up to become upright, respectable and worthy citizens of their respective countries."
The school was built in 1974 and comprises 130 boarding rooms in addition to classrooms, dining hall, assembly hall, prayer hall, gym, playing fields and car parking with 100 spaces, over a ten acre site.
An extension was built in 2007 consisting of 18 classrooms, a science laboratory, a prayer hall and wudhu (ablution) facilities.
London Fire Brigade said the pair treated at the scene were men and there were no other injuries reported.
A spokesman said: "Around 128 people, thought to have been made up of pupils and staff, evacuated the building before firefighters arrived on the scene."
He added that 21 firefighters were involved and four engines.
The brigade was called at 11.43pm and the fire was under control by 12.37am, he said.
Telegraph
Teenagers arrested over Islamic boarding school blaze
Four teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of arson following a fire at an Islamic boarding school.
The £3,000 a year boarding school opened in 1988, is one of the oldest Islamic seminaries in the UK Photo: LNP
Almost 130 pupils and teachers had to be evacuated from the Darul Uloom London Islamic School in Chislehurst, south east London, after a fire broke out.
Scotland Yard said two 17-year-olds and two 18-year-olds were detained late last night and taken to a south London police station, where they remain in custody.
Two boys suffered smoke inhalation following the blaze, which took place just before midnight on Saturday at the school in Foxbury Avenue.
Police have said there will now be increased police patrols.
The fire comes days after an Islamic Centre in Muswell Hill was burned to the ground, being daubed with the letters EDL, and just weeks after the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.
"The Met is now investigating suspicious fires at two locations within the Islamic community which have happened in the past few days. Fortunately no one has been hurt, but we know that fires can often prove fatal.
"So I want to reassure people that we are using our full range of policing tactics to protect sites that might be vulnerable.
"In all boroughs across London, there is an increased police presence around locations that might be at risk.
"We will maintain a 24/7 guard of uniformed officers at sites we consider to be at greatest risk.
"Detectives are working tirelessly to establish whether these fires were started deliberately, and if so, to catch those responsible.
"We should not allow the murder of Lee Rigby to come between Londoners.”
A total of 21 firefighters and four fire engines were involved in putting out the fire, which caused minor damage at the school.
The £3,000 a year boarding school opened in 1988, is one of the oldest Islamic seminaries in the UK. It has 130 boarding rooms in addition to classrooms, dining hall, assembly hall, prayer hall, gym, playing fields and car parking with 100 spaces, over a 10 acre site.Muslim Council of Britain Welcomes Steps to Increase Police Patrols For Vulnerable Islamic Sites
10th June 2013
* MCB praises London police to increase security at Islamic centres
* Steps long overdue after now two suspected acts of arson in London and many more across the country
* Muslim Council calls on police forces across the country to follow the Met's lead
The Muslim Council of Britain welcomed the decision by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe to 'increase police presence around locations that might be at risk' across all boroughs of London. The decision comes after yet another suspicious fire at an Islamic institution, the Darul Uloom School in Chislehurst. Earlier in the week, an Islamic centre in North London was destroyed in a suspected anti-Muslim arson attack, and many more centres attacked across the country.
Welcoming the move, Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "This is a step in the right direction. The belated introduction of police patrols for Islamic centres is welcome, and I hope police authorities across the country follow the leadership taken by the Metropolitan Police. There has been dozens of incidents of Islamophobic hate crimes, and it is important for us to have a national response to complement the excellent local police actions in certain parts of our country."
Farooq Murad added: "I fully agree with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner when he says that the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby should not be used as an excuse to divide us. Many of our fellow Britons, including the family of the victim, have reached out to Muslims to repudiate the reprisals made since the tragic murder. Just as the vast majority of British Muslims condemned the Woolwich murder and insisted the horror was contrary to the teachings of Islam.”
[ENDS]
Notes to Editors:
1. The Muslim Council of Britain is the UK's largest Muslim umbrella body with over
500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques,
charities and schools.
2. Related MCB links
3. Suggested organisations to approach to report Islamophobic hate crimes
· Engage
Rowan Williams and Islamophilia: A Very Metropolitan Malady
You've really got to hand it to Dr Rowan Williams, the erstwhile Archbishop of Canterbury – he's got a sensee of timing to die for.
Five years ago, he set off a cultural earthquake when, as head of the Anglican Communion, he made a speech in the Royal Courts of Justice in London in which he welcomed the 'inevitable' accommodation of Islamic sharia law in the UK.
At no stage, neither then nor subsequently, did he ever indicate that he regretted the intellectual fatuity and legal and theological shallowness of this suicide note for Britain's ancient culture. Nor the deep shock felt by many that the country's principal Christian prelate was cheerfully willing on the Balkanisation of Britain and the destruction of its foundational democratic principle of 'one law for all'. Nor even that he understood this was the import of what he had said.
Now, some ten days after the barbaric murder in Woolwich, south London of Drummer Lee Rigby at the hands of Islamic fanatics quoting the Koran, Dr Williams looks set to repeat his triumph.
In what promises to be a high-profile event in the lawyers' Temple Church in London – which for some rreason has taken a lead in promoting sharia in the UK – Dr Williams will today help launch a new book, Islam and English Law, published by Cambridge University Press.
According to the pre-launch blurb, the book will ask:
- 'Is sharia law compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights?
- Should English law give greater recognition to Islamic custom and practice?
- Should freedom of speech be restrained to protect Muslims' sensibilities?
- Can Muslims be full members, in good conscience and without qualification, of our pluralist society?'
and also
'…what changges, if any, to legal provision and practice will narrow division between the UK's communities, promote understanding and accommodation – and, to improve the proteection offered to them all.'
Well, I suppose it's possible that the book – along with Dr Williams -- will answer that last question by saying: 'Stop sharia now'. Such an answer would certainly bring relief to the many thousands of British Muslims who want to live in freedom and security under democracy, equal human rights and 'one law for all'.
However, given that the contributors to this book are
Abdullahi An-Na'im, Mashood Baderin, Marion Boyd, Nicolas Bratza, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Ian Edge, Khaled Abou El Fadl, David Ford, Robin Griffith-Jones, Mark Hill, Stephen Hockman, Sydney Kentridge, Christopher McCrudden, Dominic McGoldrick, Tariq Modood, Nicholas Phillips, Tariq Ramadan, Albie Sachs, Shaheen Sardar Ali, Prakash Shah and Rowan Williams,
I'd guess that the answer to the questions listed under the bullet-points above might be mostly 'yes', 'yes', 'yes' and 'yes'.
If so, then Dr Williams will doubly deserve his place in the pantheon of ridicule savaged by Douglas Murray in his dazzling new book, Islamophilia, https://www.embooks.com/book/islamophilia which I am delighted to be publishing today as the latest title from my new electronic imprint, emBooks, www.embooks.com in response to the Woolwich atrocity and its aftermath.
Islamophilia  is not about terrorism. It is not about Islam. It is not about Muslims. It is instead about those utterly ridiculous public figures -- including movie stars, literary giants, pop idols, army generals, bishops, museum curators and politicians -- in whom an epidemic loss of cultural nerve and the terror of losing their reputation in fashionable circles has made them victims of the debilitating affliction of Islamophilia. The book is laugh-out-loud funny. It is also jaw-dropping. And it is tragic.
This little firecracker fulfills my aim when I launched emBooks last month – to provide a platform for writers of talent and integrity to describe the world as it is, not as some people would like to remake it. My hope is thus to get right away from the polarisation and caricatures of so much political and cultural life, and reclaim instead the true, decent, rational centre ground of western society from those who have hijacked it.
I hope lots of people will join me.
"ISLAMOPHILIA shows how so many of the celebrities above, have, at some point chosen to abandon any hope or wish to criticize Islam and instead decided to profess some degree of love for it. Love, that Murray points out in the book, is often irrational and certainly misguided: the book̢۪s tour includes novelists Sebastian Faulks and Martin Amis, Boris Johnson, South Park, Tony Blair, Ridley Scott, David Cameron, Liam Neeson, Justin Bieber, Random House Publishers, the BBC, Richard Dawkins, the Prince of Wales and even George Bush. Yes, George Bush."
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375 Park Avenue Suite 2607 New York NY 10152Telegraph
Islamic EDL plotters jailed for 19 years inspired by 'freely availble extremist material'
Islamist plotters were inspired by "freely available extremist material" to plan a murderous attack on an English Defence League rally, a judge said today as he jailed them for up to 19-and-a-half years.
(Top row lt-rt) Anzal Hussain, Mohammed Hasseen, Omar Khan. (Bottom row Lt-Rt) Jewel Uddin, Mohammed Saud and Zohaib Ahmed Photo: PA
The al-Qaeda inspired six-strong group, all from Birmingham, were told they posed a “significant risk” to the public and plotted a “hideous” attack.
The men planned to attack an EDL rally in June last year with homemade bombs, guns and knives and wanted to spark a “spiral of tit for tat violence” judge Nicholas Hilliard QC told the Old Bailey.
The judge also voiced growing concern over the ready access to extremist material online.
He said the "tide of freely available extremist material" was partly to blame for turning the men in to fanatics, an issue which had "continuing significance" beyond this case.
Between them, the six men had up to 18,000 separate pieces of Islamic ideological and extremist material on their computers and phones.
Judge Hilliard QC told the men: " How was it that you became involved in a crime of this gravity? At least part of the answer to that question must come in the tide of apparently freely available extremist material in which most of you had immersed yourselves."
Jewel Uddin, 27, Omar Mohammed Khan, 31, Mohammed Hasseen, 24, Anzal Hussain, 24, Mohammed Saud, 22, and Zohaib Ahmed, 22, pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Uddin, Khan and Ahmed were each sentenced to an extended term of 24.5 years, of which they will serve up to 19.5 years in prison and the remainder on licenced release.
Saud, Hasseen and Hussain were given extended sentences of 23 years and nine months, of which they will serve up to 18 years nine months.
A defence lawyer for one of the men last week said the men’s plot was “amateurish” and they had over-reacted to “calculated insults” by the EDL against Islam.
But judge Hilliard said the plot was far was amateurish but was “wide ranged and determined.”
The group’s actions would have led to a “spiral of tit for tat violence”, he added.
The plot only failed because the men turned up too late for the rally and it had finished.
But it was “inconceivable” that the men’s resolve for another attack had evaporated, the judge said.
Five of the gang travelled to Dewsbury armed with homemade bombs, two shotguns, machetes and knives.
The group was caught by another blunder because an error by one of the terrorists when taking out car insurance led to one of their vehicles being stopped by a traffic officer as they returned home.
Even then, the car sat in pound for two days before the terrorist cache and a letter attacking the Queen and detailing the plot was discovered.
Ten copies of the letter, headed “Operation in defence of the prophet Mohammed”, were recovered.
It criticised the Queen as the “Kafir Female Devil” and warns the EDL, which they called the English Drunkards League” that “We love death more than you love life”.
The sentencing comes amid increased tensions between the EDL and rival political factions in the wake of the alleged murder of Drummer Lee Rigby.
EDL leader Tommy Robinson and his deputy Kevin Carroll watched the sentencing and shouted “God Save the Queen” from the public gallery.
They also exchanged words with friends and family of the defendants before being removed by security.
Telegraph
We don't want to spy on terrorists, we don't want to kill them, we don't want to deport them. What do we want?
Barack Obama – not, in fact, the new Nixon. (Photo: Getty)
Do we actually want to defeat terrorism? Honestly, do we? I know we talk a good game about standing up to the men of terror and letting freedom shine, and all the rest of the worthy, if yellowing, clichés. But do we mean it. Do we really want to stand up to the men of terror, or do we just want to leave them to go on their merry way, flying planes into our buildings, and blowing up our trains and buses and hacking us to death in the street?
From the moral outrage pouring out of the papers this morning, you could be forgiven for thinking NSA “whistle-blower” Edward Snowdenhad just exposed Barack Obama as an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. Obama’s the new Nixon, a threat to our freedom. Why? Because apparently he’s been conducting surveillance of international terrorists.
The fact that, on the surface, the shadowy practices Snowden has exposed appear to have been entirely legal under the Patriot Act has been lost. As has the fact they were introduced by the Bush administration, were done so with the bipartisan approval of Congress, and were the subject of Congressional and judicial oversight.
The problem is that the rest of us didn’t know about it. Until this week we hadn’t heard of Prism, the ultra-sophisticated computer system that allows the US government to monitor online communications across the globe.
But frankly, why the hell should we have heard of it? That’s the whole point of covert surveillance. The clue is in the name.
It’s as if the whole world has suddenly turned into Alex Jones, the crazed conspiracy theorist who hijacked the Sunday Politics show yesterday. The liberal and conservative commentariat has joined in unholy alliance, and is now roaming the airwaves condemning this dangerous assault on democracy.
What they’re ignoring is that this is actually how democracy works. Even in a free society, the state has to have some secrets. The means and methods by which it tracks terrorists should, I’d suggest, be one of them. Should those means and methods be subject to scrutiny? Yes. Should that scrutiny come from our democratically elected representatives? Yes. Should the powers being scrutinised also be the subject of checks and balances from the courts? Yes. In other words, precisely what has been happening with Prism.
On September 11, 2001, 3,000 innocent people were killed in the worst terrorist massacre in history. And since then the liberal Left and libertarian Right have condemned and opposed and criticised and attempted to undermine every single measure put in place to ensure that atrocity can never be repeated.
First there was the invasion of Afghanistan, instigated to deny the terrorists a safe haven for the planning of future 9/11 style attacks. And it was opposed, and dubbed “an illegal war”. So laws such as the Patriot Act were introduced, designed to place the fight against terror on a sound legal footing. And they were opposed. Then Guantánamo was opened. And that was of course opposed. So military tribunals were suggested. And they were opposed as well.
Then, to avoid invasions and ground incursions at all, drone strikes were introduced. And they were opposed. When evidence of aggressive interrogation techniques emerged they – rightly – were opposed. So covert electronic surveillance techniques were introduced. And as we’ve seen, they are now being opposed.
Attempts to tackle terrorism at its roots, by programmes such as Prevent, were also tried. And they were opposed for stigmatising the Muslim community. So last week calls went out for the Muslim community to police itself. And they were opposed, as some sort of informer’s charter.
Terrorist suspects were arrested, and placed in jail without trial. And that was opposed. So they were released with tags and stringent bail conditions. And that was opposed. So the government tried to deport them. And that was opposed too.
We don’t want to invade them, we don’t want to assassinate them, we don’t want to incarcerate them, we don’t want to monitor them, we don’t want to educate them, we don’t want to deport them. So just how do we want to confront and defeat these men who want us dead?
“The rule of law,” goes the cry. “The rule of law should be both our sword and shield in the war on terror.” But we don’t want the laws. We don’t want the means of gathering evidence to prosecute people under the laws. And when someone like Edward Snowden pops up, possibly breaking the law himself, and by doing so undermines the very methods used to prosecute terrorists using legal methods, we laud him as a hero of our times.
As we speak Edward Snowden’s former colleagues are peering at computer screens, listening intently to headphones or sitting in an unmarked van, in some dirty, dangerous street in Pakistan, desperately searching for the clue that will prevent another 9/11. Meanwhile Snowden himself is sitting in his well-appointed Hong Kong hotel room, under the protective wing of the world’s largest totalitarian state, waiting for his next interview and round of room service.
Stand up to the men of terror? Don’t make me laugh.
Send Us Your Violent Bigots, Yearning to Butcher Our Children
May 30, 2013 By Comments (32)
It’s been a bad few weeks for cultural assimilation. Last month, two welfare-receiving immigrants in the United States, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds. By the end of the week, they had murdered a cop and engaged in a wild shoot-out and bomb-throwing melee with the police.
It’s been a bad few weeks for cultural assimilation. Last month, two welfare-receiving immigrants in the United States, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds. By the end of the week, they had murdered a cop and engaged in a wild shoot-out and bomb-throwing melee with the police.
Last week, a couple of ethnic Nigerians butchered a British soldier with meat cleavers in broad daylight on a bustling street in a London suburb, then boasted about the murder in video interviews with bystanders. (On the bright side, they did not claim to be princes and ask for your life savings.)
Also last week, immigrants, mostly Muslims, began rioting in peaceful Sweden — burning schools to the ground, torching cars and throwing rocks at the police. (Who among us hasn’t lost his temper trying to assemble an Ikea china cabinet?)
Supporters of the West’s current immigration policies can’t keep ducking reality. So they try to shut down debate by calling their opponents racists, xenophobes, know-nothings and fascists.
The English Defense League (EDL), for example, is portrayed in the media as a bunch of racist football hooligans. So I was surprised to learn that the EDL has not only a Jewish division, but a gay division. (Harvey Fierstein could be their president!) They expressly support Israel against Muslim terror and burn Nazi flags at their rallies.
Apparently it is considered “fascist” to oppose actual fascists immigrating to your country.
A few years ago, an opinion piece in The New York Times denounced the pro-gay positions of anti-immigration groups such as the EDL for “co-opting” gays. The co-opting is so thoroughgoing that the anti-immigration Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was himself gay. He was assassinated by a vegan animal rights activist upset at criticism of Muslims.
But surely members of the EDL oppose Britain’s immigration policies out of ignorance?
It briefly seemed so. A month ago, the head of the EDL, Tommy Robinson, provoked a round of liberal sneering when he tweeted: “welcome to twitter homepage has a picture of a mosque. what a joke.” Various media outlets leapt to point out that the photo was, actually, the Taj Mahal.
The liberal Guardian mocked: “It’s worth pointing out that the ‘mosque’ that started this … was in fact the Taj Mahal, the marble mausoleum in India. It’s almost as if the very existence of the EDL is based on false information, suspicion and idiocy.”
Except — oops –– it wasn’t the Taj Mahal. It was a mosque — the Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, to be precise — as The Guardian quietly admitted in an altered photo caption after stealthily removing the comment about the EDL’s “idiocy” for imagining it was a mosque. It’s almost as if the very existence of The Guardian is based on false information, suspicion and idiocy.
Britain, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain have recently enacted, or are considering enacting, further restrictions on immigration, alarming immigration enthusiasts. The New York Times reported this week that the “right-wing Swiss People’s Party” is requesting a referendum on immigration.
Wait a second! A referendum doesn’t sound fascist at all. In fact and to the contrary, it’s always the advocates of unrestricted immigration who try to avoid letting the people vote. Marco Rubio and the rest of the pro-amnesty “Gang of Eight” don’t even want the country to know they’re about to vote on a mass immigration scheme.
Liberals say, “Basic human rights are not subject to a vote!” — and then define “basic human rights” as “the right of people who don’t live in your country to move there.”
Manifestly, opponents of open immigration are not fascists, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, intolerant or idiots. But as long as we’re on the subject, may we inquire into the tolerance and other Western values of the potential immigrants themselves?
Last week, U.S. law enforcement officials reported that Muslim immigrant Ibragim Todashev admitted that he and Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev had murdered three Jewish men in a Boston suburb on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack. (Which also, I believe, was the work of immigrants.) The victims’ throats were cut from ear to ear, nearly decapitating them. One was Tamerlan’s best friend.
Searching The New York Times’ webpage for “English Defense League,” turns up this multicultural story out of Saudi Arabia: “Online Campaign Draws Attention to Case of Saudi Father Accused of Rape and Torture.” The father, Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a prominent Islamic cleric, served only a few months in a Saudi Arabian prison for allegedly raping, burning and fatally beating his own 5-year-old daughter.
It’s not just Muslims who aren’t warming to Western values. Polls by the Anti-Defamation League going back decades have shown a steady decline of anti-Semitism in the U.S. But a 2002 poll showed a surprising upsurge.
While 17 percent of all Americans were said to hold “strongly anti-Semitic” views, 35 percent of Hispanics did — as did 44 percent of foreign-born Hispanics.
(Note to Sheldon Adelson: It may be time to give your Hispanic employees a raise.)
Liberals get a kick out of accusing their opponents of what they themselves are guilty of. But this may be the most audacious reverse-guilt play yet. For objecting to the importation of primitive, violent, child-rape-forgiving bigots, the opponents of mass immigration are accused of bigotry.
Telegraph
MI5 chief Andrew Parker briefs Cabinet on Woolwich investigation
Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, has briefed the Cabinet on the Woolwich terrorist attacks, Downing Street said today.
Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, has briefed the Cabinet on the Woolwich terrorist attacks, Downing Street said on Tuesday. Photo: MI5/PA
5:22PM BST 04 Jun 2013
The meeting is thought to be the first one to be briefed by Andrew Parker, the director general of the Security Service, since he took over in April.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that Mr Parker addressed the Cabinet with Home secretary Theresa May.
The spokesman said: “The Home secretary and the Director General of the security service updated Cabinet on the events of Woolwich and the subsequent investigation.”
David Cameron has been criticised for going to MI5 on the day after the brutal murder of Drummer Lee Rigby by Islamist extremists.
The spokesman added that Mr Cameron remained supportive of the work of MI5, despite concerns that the security service had been in contact with Drummer Rigby’s alleged killers before the attack.
The spokesman added: “The PM’s admiration for the work that the security services do – he set that out very clearly in his statement the day after the horrific events in Woolwich.
“He also in that statement explained that the ISC [Intelligence and Security Committee] would be conducting its inquiry which is now happening.”
One of the last recorded occasions when the head of MI5 briefed the Cabinet was in March last year, when Mr Parker’s predecessor Sir Jonathan Evans, told ministers of the threats facing the country in the period leading up to the London Olympic Games.
Mr Parker has worked for the Security Service for more than 30 years. Sir Jonathan retired in April.
Telegraph
Campaign aims to make faith schools open to all
The faith school system is “mired in discrimination” and is harming community cohesion, a new campaign group has claimed.
A new campaign group says schools should be open to all, regardless of religious background Photo: PAUL GROVER
1:52PM BST 06 Jun 2013
7 Comments
The Fair Admissions Campaign seeks to force all state-funded schools to be open to all children, regardless of their parents’ religion.
It warned that the current system was “grossly unfair” and only fuelled the faith and ethnic divisions that already permeate society.
Prof Ted Cantle, author of the report on the 2001 Oldham race riots, said religious schools underpinned a system in which children were taught that they were “different” and failed to build friendships with those of different backgrounds and cultures.
“Our school system is not fit for the modern age,” he said.
“Britain is now a multi-faith country and super diverse with other 300 languages in London and 200 in most other cities. It is time our schools came to terms with our present day society and to positively contribute to the process of integration, promoting tolerance and tackling extremism.”
It is seeking to support those who want their schools to be open to the whole community and to encourage individual faith schools to embrace more open admission arrangements.
An online map will be created in order to provide parents with information about the admissions policies of the schools in their local area.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of the Accord Coalition which co-founded the campaign, said it was “unthinkable” that other public sector services such as libraries or hospitals, discriminated on the basis of religion.
“We not only divide children according to their belief systems, but teach them a terrible lesson about us and them and at the very age when we should be promoting inclusivity and equality,” he said. “It is the wrong message and at precisely the wrong time.”
The Catholic Education Service insisted that it supported a "diverse education system" while a Church of England spokeswoman said its schools served the local community and had done for more than 200 years.
The new campaign is supported by various religious, education and political groups including the British Humanist Association, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Liberal Democrat Education Association and the Hindu Academy.
Note: Appears to be a Muslim killer - "Two bodies were found in a burned home from which the gunman was first seen emerging. He then carjacked vehcile and shot several random people before police chased him into Santa Monica College. Police sources told the Los Angeles Times that the men were Samir Zawahri, 55, the owner of the house, and a son. A second son is suspected of being the shooter." RH
Telegraph
Four dead in Santa Monica gun rampage
Four people were killed by a gunman in a ballistic vest who went on the rampage in the quiet seaside town of Santa Monica, California before being shot dead in a college library.
9:21AM BST 08 Jun 2013
Five others were wounded during the rampage, one of them critically. The shootings happened less than three miles from where President Barack Obama was attending a fundraising event at the Santa Monica home of former News Corp President Peter Chernin but that was a coincidence, police said.
Two bodies were found in a burned home from which the gunman was first seen emerging. He then carjacked vehcile and shot several random people before police chased him into Santa Monica College. Police sources told the Los Angeles Times that the men were Samir Zawahri, 55, the owner of the house, and a son. A second son is suspected of being the shooter.
Resident Jerry Cunningham described seeing the gunman, a white man aged about 30, coming out of the burning home.
She said: "He was in full SWAT team gear, all in black from neck to tow with an ammunition belt. He went up to a car and the woman in it hesitated. He was two feet away from her and he fired three shots into her without any thought at all, it was methodical."
Policemen search the grounds of Santa Monica College
After several other shooting incidents he was found by police but ran away into Santa Monica College and opened fire inside the library.
Student Priscilla Morales, who was in the library, said: "I heard three gunshots and we saw the flash of the gun. The police were there very quickly. The were telling him to drop it and he wouldn't drop it. Afterwards, we saw him and he was like dead."
A Santa Monica police officer leads children on a field trip from Citizens of the World Charter School in Los Angeles out of Santa Monica College, where they had gone for a planetarium show
Santa Monica police chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said: "He tried to evade officers by running on to the college campus. He went into the library, and shot a woman in the library, and attempted to shoot at other individuals who were able to find safety within the library. He was shot and killed at the scene."
A Secret Service spokesman in Washington said Mr Obama had not been affected, adding: "We are aware of the incident and it is not impacting the visit. It's a local police matter at this point."
Santa Monica shooting: gunman had 1,300 rounds of ammunition
The gunman who went on a chaotic rampage killing four people before being fatally shot by police at a college campus planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds of ammunition, police have said.
A Santa Monica police officer leads children on a field trip from Citizens of the World Charter School in Los Angeles out of Santa Monica College, where they had gone for a planetarium show Photo: AP
"Any time someone puts on a vest, of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be neutralised at the hands of the police, I would say that that's premeditated," Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said.
The killer would have turned 24 on Saturday, but Ms Seabrooks wouldn't identify him because his next of kin was out of the country. Police had an encounter with him seven years ago, but she wouldn't elaborate because he was a juvenile at the time.
The chief spoke near a display of weapons and ammo recovered from Santa Monica College where the killings ended on Friday when police shot the suspect dead in the library, where students were studying for finals.
Among the items on display were surveillance photos of a man in black entering the library with an assault-style rifle by his side.
The gunman fatally shot one woman in the head outside the library before entering the building and opening fire as students ran for cover.
Students fled into what Ms Seabrooks called a "safe room" in the library and barricaded the door for safety.
"They stacked items found in the safe room against the door, hunkered down and avoided shots fired through the drywall at them while they were in that room," she said.
The violence, which lasted a little more than 10 minutes, started about a mile away when the gunman began shooting at a house, and it caught on fire. Two bodies were later found inside.
Two officials said that the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman's father and brother.
As flames rose from the house, the man, wearing what appeared to be a ballistic jacket, shot a woman passing by in a car and carjacked another woman at gunpoint. He directed her to drive to the college campus, having her stop so he could shoot along the way, police said.
He fired on a city bus where three women were left with minor injuries. One had shrapnel-type injuries and the two others had injuries not related to gunfire. They were treated at a hospital and released.
The gunman also fired on police cars, bystanders and pedestrians, police said.
From there, the chaos shifted to the college, a two-year school with about 34,000 students located among homes and strip malls more than a mile inland from the city's famous pier, promenade and expansive, sandy beaches.
In a faculty parking lot on the edge of campus, he fired on two people in a red Ford Explorer that crashed through a block wall. The driver was killed, police said, and a passenger was in critical condition after undergoing surgery at UCLA Medical Center, doctors said. On Saturday, authorities identified the driver as Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, of West Los Angeles, who worked at the school.
College employee Joe Orcutt was in the lot and said the gunman looked calm and composed as he fired at him. Mr Orcutt survived by jumping out of the way.
"He's just standing there, like he's modeling for some ammo magazine," Mr Orcutt said, "seeing who he could shoot, one bullet at a time, like target practice."
Edited by Bonnie Malkin for telegraph.co.uk
Note: Whether they are Muslim or not the use of the Burka in crimes is a general danger. RH
Telegraph
Burka-clad Selfridges raiders escaped with £1m worth of watches
Armed raiders who targeted London's Selfridges store while dressed in burkas managed to escape with £1million worth of luxury watches.
Police, medics and passers-by around a man who came off a moped at the corner of Goodge Street and Charlotte Street Photo: Matthew Carrozo/PA
7:20PM BST 08 Jun 2013
The six-strong gang used the religious dress to disguise themselves and the tools they were carrying during the raid at 8.30pm on Thursday.
The axe and sledge hammer-wielding group smashed glass cabinets at a pre-arranged moment then filled holdalls with the watches, which the Metropolitan Police today said were worth £1million.
Stunned onlookers in Oxford Street, the capital's busiest shopping district, watched as the gang met accomplices outside in getaway vehicles believed to be a moped, two motorbikes and a black BMW estate.
Two suspects were arrested after falling off a moped when it crashed nearby and members of the public stopped them from leaving.
Today, Scotland Yard said officers recovered one holdall at the scene containing 41 watches.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Noyes, from the Flying Squad, said: "This was a brazen attack that was clearly well planned and well thought through. Fortunately robberies like this are rare.
"I'd like to thank those members of the public who stepped in and detained our two suspects. "Their quick thinking and brave actions have helped our investigation.
"We have recovered a number of items from the scene, as well as the gang's vehicles they used in their escape and we are carrying out a full forensic examination.
"Extra officers are in the Oxford Street area and our investigation is moving quickly with a number of lines of enquiry. We still want to hear from anyone who saw the robbery, who may have seen the vehicles involved in the time running up to or after the robbery or who think they may know who has been involved."
A 19-year-old man has been charged with offences relating to the robbery, police said.
A 24-year-old man, was taken to a central London hospital, believed to be suffering from a fractured leg. He remains in hospital.
The two motorbikes were recovered by police in Bolton Place, near the junction with Taunton Place, NW1. The suspects were seen to run off in the direction of Russmore Road, NW1, where another vehicle may have been waiting.
Police also recovered a black BMW in Cumberland Gardens, WC1.
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| Welcome to the May 2013 edition of Runnymede's e-newsletter, keeping you connected with our work. Please send any feedback to info@runnymedetrust.org For a more frequent update on everything race equality-related, follow @RunnymedeTrust on Twitter or join us on Facebook News Stop and Search: The Human Face On 29th May StopWatch held a very successful public meeting where over 100 members of the public were given the opportunity to speak directly to representatives from the Metropolitan Police, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about the impact that stop and search has on their lives and their communities. After hearing about the recent report by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), Viewed With Suspicion: The Human Cost of Stop and Search, there was a lively and passionate debate in which the policy makers heard about the hurt and damage that stop and search has caused. Many young people in attendance talked about how they feel unfairly targeted and parents expressed their dismay at seeing their children experience the same negative encounters with the police that they themselves endured. This left the official representatives in no doubt as to the strength of negative feeling towards stop and search, and the work needed to repair the damage it has caused to community policing. If you want more information on our work with StopWatch, you can contact Sondhya Gupta atsondhya@runnymedetrust.org or on 020 7377 9222, or visit www.stop-watch.org Get in touch... ...If you work in academia, politics or acting In academia, only 7.7% of professors are from BME backgrounds; in politics, BME candidates have been victims of grotesque stunts and in acting, there were no black actors nominated at the recent Bafta television awards. These three sectors have proven recently to unfairly represent the diversity of their workforce, and we want you to get in touch if you've experienced discrimination or abuse at the hands of your sector's disproportionate focus on your white, male counterparts. You can do this by contacting Florence Nosegbe at florence@runnymedetrust.org or on 020 7377 9222. Any input given will be taken in confidence and will enable us to develop a clearer understanding of discrimination within these sectors, provide us all with a way of joining up our experience of discrimination, and will ultimately give us the necessary information to put pressure on decision makers to change the ways they address this issue. Get Involved Internship We are looking for someone to edit our bulletin over the summer. This will be the final bulletin that we produce in its current format and will be a retrospective look at all the work that Runnymede has completed since we were founded in 1968. This is ideal for anyone with an interest or background in history, editing and publishing, and will suit any students who are looking to gain experience during their summer holiday. If you're interested, you can find more details on our website or can contact us atinfo@runnymedetrust.org Events Capturing the Minority Vote
Following Obama’s 2012 election victory, this event will debate whether the Labour Party should follow tactics used by the Democrat Party in the US and target the votes of specific groups, such as women and ethnic minorities.
Location: Committee Room 11, Houses of Parliament, London, SW1A 0AA Date: Tuesday 4th June You can find more details here The Stephen Lawrence Murder: Learning from a Milestone in British Race Relations - with Dr. Doreen Lawrence OBE Dr. Lawrence has fought for 20 years to bring the men who murdered her 18-year-old son, Stephen, to justice and to shed light on race relations in Britain. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence's murder and presents an important opportunity to explore the many lessons about racism and intolerance learned from this tragic episode in British history. Location: Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE Date: Wednesday 19th June To register, please click here Delivering Financial Inclusion: Overcoming Financial Exclusion and Problem Debt Runnymede's Head of Policy Research will be speaking at this event on financial inclusion. The event will answer the following questions:
Location: 1 Drummond Gate, Victoria, London, SW1V 2QQ
Date: Wednesday 26th June Find out more by clicking here Runnymede is the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank. We generate intelligence for a multi-ethnic Britain through research, network building, leading debate, and policy engagement. Find us on Twitter andFacebook |
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Turkish-Islamist Infiltration of Germany
A Turkish cabinet minister’s recent eyebrow-raising meeting with extremist Muslims from Germany’s Salafist scene raises fresh concerns about increasing Turkish-Islamist infiltration of Germany. Another Turkish ministry already trains imams and determines sermon content for 880 mosques in Germany, while a radical Turkish imam operates a private school network across the country.
The Facebook page of the German Salafist website Die Wahre Religion (The True Religion) recently published a photo of the meeting. The man in the middle donning business attire with a purple tie is Suat Kiliç, Turkish Minister for Youth and Sport. To the right of Kiliç is Ibrahim Abou-Nagie. To Kiliç’s left is Abu Abdullah, and to Abdullah’s left is Abu Dujana.
One of Die Wahre Religion’s founders, Abou-Nagie, is a Palestinian Arab who has resided in Germany for the last 30 years and currently lives in Cologne. Abou-Nagie’s statements on Die Wahre Religion led to an ultimately unsuccessful criminal prosecution for incitement to criminal acts and disturbance of the religious peace in September 2011. Later Abou-Nagie achieved prominence with a spring 2012 campaign to distribute German-language Korans throughout Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. A Youtube video threatening journalists who reported critically on the campaign briefly appeared at this time. Following this campaign, individual accusations arose that Abou-Nagie had conspired to murder a German critic of Islam, Zahid Khan. It became known in June 2012 as well that Abou-Nagie had illegitimately drawn German social welfare benefits even though he lived well from unreported income. Abu Abdullah and Abu Dujana, meanwhile, are associates of Abou-Nagie at Die Wahre Religion.
The Turkish-born Hessian parliamentarian Ismail Tipi from Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union or CDU) expressed his concerns with the photo in an open letter on his website. Tipi, a Muslim who advocates a clear separation between secular and sacral matters, “clearly rebuked” Kiliç’s “seemingly friendly interaction with extremists.”
Tipi expressed being “greatly disconcerted” by a “leading Turkish politician” meeting with “hate preachers” who were “empirically involved in fundamentalist and violent-prone activities.” Such “Salafisten” sought “to abolish German democracy and to replace it with a sharia system.” These individuals were similarly “responsible for a number of severe societal problems with which we in Germany have to fight in the area of integration.” Tipi cited “good reason” for these individuals having “long been watched by our security and constitutional authorities and rated as extremely dangerous.”
Tipi warned that any “possibly friendly tie to Salafists in Germany would have thoroughly negative consequences for the traditionally very good diplomatic relations between Germany and Turkey.” Tipi expressed to Kiliç the assumption that “it was not known to you, who at this moment stood opposite you.” “I expect and demand, however,” Tipi added, “a public clarification from you, that you do not support and have not supported at any time radical Salafist extremists in any form whatsoever.” Otherwise the Facebook photo would continue to be “misused as propaganda material” online.
Tipi’s invocation of “German-Turkish friendship” involved a belief in mutual rejection in the two countries of repressive religious forces. Tipi, for example, considered it unthinkable for Turkey, a “secular state according to the example of Ataturk…to offer a platform in public for extremists.” Tipi, meanwhile, claimed that the “greatest part of the Turkish Muslims in Germany did not want…hate preachers” to “poison the thoughts of our children.” “As a Muslim, native Turk, and active German provincial politician,” Tipi saw it is as his “duty” to protect his home against “extremists” and expected the same from Turkish politicians.
Yet the troubling questions raised by this photo for Tipi remain. What prompted a Turkish cabinet minister to greet such disreputable extremists? Could a minister, accompanied apparently by his entourage in the photo, not have known with whom he was meeting during a prepared foreign trip?
Kiliç’s meet-and-greet can only heighten existing concerns in Germany about Turkish-Islamist influence there. Many Germans, for example, find unsettling Turkey’s sponsorship of the Turkish Islamic Union of the Institute of Religion (Diyanet Isleri Türk Islam Birgili or DITIB). As the conservative German newspaper Die Welt explains, this organization of Turkish Muslims, founded in 1984, is the largest Muslim entity in Germany, claiming to represent 880 mosques. Lacking an income source similar to Germany’s church taxes raised by the state from individual denomination members, DITIB is financially dependent upon Turkey’s Diyanet or ministry of religion. This government body trains Muslim imams, including those regularly loaned to DITIB while in the Diyanet’s pay, and even determines sermon content in Turkey. Complimenting this Turkish state support, Turkish consulate religious attachés in Germany work closely with the DITIB and its chairmen are usually Turkish minister counselors.
Various facets of DITIB have prompted one writer in the conservative German newspaper Junge Freiheit to speak of a “colonial administration.” The DITIB, for example, opposed German immigration restrictions introduced in 2007 and accordingly refused to participate in a government-sponsored conference on Islam in Germany that year. DITIB’s Turkish- and Arab-speaking imams, moreover, do not allow for easy monitoring by German authorities even as accusations have arisen that the Diyanet trains these imams to deny the Armenian genocide.
Reservations as well exist in Germany concerning the global network of schools and foundations founded the Turkish imam Fethullah Gülen. Described by an English online Der Spiegel article as an “ultraconservative secret society, a sect not unlike the Church of Scientology,” the Gülen movement has advanced in conjunction with Kiliç’s AKP party an Islamist agenda in Turkey and abroad under a façade of Muslim moderation.
For observers worried about the rise of Islamist forces in Germany and in Turkey, this photo is yet another bad sign.
This article was sponsored by Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
Boston Marathom bombing: Dzohkhar Tsarnaev tells mother he is 'doing fine'
Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzohkhar Tsarnaev has told his mother that he is receiving thousands of dollars in support from unnamed sources.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva Photo: AP
Zubeidat Tsarnaev replayed a recording of the conversation with her son, who is being held in Fort Devens prison in Massachusetts, in which he says "everything is fine" ahead of his trial.
"I'm already eating and have been for a long time," he said in the message, which was recorded last week according to Channel 4 News.
"They are giving me rice and chicken now. Everything is fine," he added. "Everything is good."
Tsarnaev, 19, faces life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted on terrorism and other charges following last month's twin bombings at the Boston Marathon, which he allegedly carried out with his older brother Tamerlan, 26.
Their mother insisted to the British news channel during the interview in Dagestan that "I know my kids didn't do it".
He explained that "somebody opened an account for me and people send me money here, I do have lots of money."
She added that he said thousands of dollars when asked him exactly how much.
Father Anzor said his son was in shock and "doesn't understand what has happened to him".
"There is no justice," he added. "It's impossible to understand what happened."
The parents' campaign protesting their sons' innocence has raised $8,000, they revealed.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a gun battle with police three days after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 at the marathon finish line.
A first court hearing for Djokhar Tsarnaev was last month pushed back to from July 2 to July 10.
Edited by Bonnie Malkin for telegraph.co.uk
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