Four Muslim thugs of Tower Hamlets and their victim. |
Victims
say that officers in the borough of Tower Hamlets have ignored or downplayed
outbreaks of hate crime, and suppressed evidence implicating Muslims in them,
because they fear being accused of racism.
The
claims come as four Tower Hamlets Muslims were jailed for at least 19 years for
attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to Muslim
girls.
The
Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than a dozen other cases in Tower Hamlets
where both Muslims and non-Muslims have been threatened or beaten for behaviour
deemed to breach fundamentalist “Islamic norms.”
One
victim, Mohammed Monzur Rahman, said he was left partially blind and with a
dislocated shoulder after being attacked by a mob in Cannon Street Road,
Shadwell, for smoking during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan last year.
“Two guys
stopped me in the street and asked me why I was smoking,” he said. “I just
carried on, and before I knew another dozen guys came and jumped me. The next
thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital.”
“He
reported it to the police and they just said they couldn’t track anyone down
and there were no witnesses,” said Ansar Ahmed Ullah, a local anti-extremism
campaigner who has advised Mr Rahman. “But there is CCTV in that street and it
is lined with shops and people.”
Teachers
in several local schools have told The Sunday Telegraph that they feel “under
pressure” from local Muslim extremists, who have mounted campaigns through both
parents and pupils – and, in one case, through another teacher - to enforce the
compulsory wearing of the veil for Muslim girls.
“It was totally orchestrated,” said one teacher. “The atmosphere became extremely unpleasant for a while, with constant verbal aggression from both the children and some parents against the head over this issue.”
“It was totally orchestrated,” said one teacher. “The atmosphere became extremely unpleasant for a while, with constant verbal aggression from both the children and some parents against the head over this issue.”
One
teacher at the Bigland Green primary school, Nicholas Kafouris, last year took
the council to an employment tribunal, saying he was forced out of his job for
complaining that Muslim pupils were engaging in racist and anti-Semitic
bullying and saying they supported terrorism.
Mr
Kafouris lost his case, though the school did admit that insufficient action
had been taken against the behaviour of some pupils. The number of assaults on
teachers in Tower Hamlets resulting in exclusions has more than doubled from
190 in 2007/8 to 383 in 2008/9, the latest available year, though not all are
necessarily race-related.
Tower
Hamlets’ gay community has become a particular target of extremists. Homophobic
crimes in the borough have risen by 80 per cent since 2007/8, and by 21 per
cent over the last year, a period when there was a slight drop in London as a
whole.
Last
year, a mob of 30 young Muslims stormed a local gay pub, the George and Dragon,
beating and abusing patrons. Many customers of the pub told The Sunday
Telegraph that they have been attacked and harassed by local Muslim youths.
In 2008 a 20-year-old student, Oli Hemsley, was left permanently paralysed after an attack by a group of young Muslims outside the pub. Only one of his assailants has been caught and jailed.
In 2008 a 20-year-old student, Oli Hemsley, was left permanently paralysed after an attack by a group of young Muslims outside the pub. Only one of his assailants has been caught and jailed.
Even
during meetings of the local council, prominent supporters of Tower Hamlets’
controversial directly-elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman – dropped by the Labour
Party for his links to Islamic fundamentalism - have persistently targeted gay
councillors with homophobic abuse and intimidation from the public gallery.
The
Labour leader, Josh Peck, was attacked with animal noises and cries of
“Unnatural acts! Unnatural acts!” when he rose to speak. The Conservative
leader, Peter Golds, was repeatedly heckled as “Mrs Golds” and a “poofter”.
Mr Golds
said: “If that happened in a football stadium, arrests would have taken place.
I have complained, twice, to the police, and have heard nothing. A Labour
colleague waited three hours at the police station before being told that
nothing would be done. The police are afraid of being accused of Islamophobia.
Another Labour councillor said that the Met is now the reverse of what it must
have been like in the 1970s, with a complete lack of interest when white people
make complaints of harassment and hatred.”
In
February this year, dozens of stickers appeared across Tower Hamlets quoting
the Koran, declaring the borough a “gay-free zone” and stating that “verily
Allah is severe in punishment.”
The
Sunday Telegraph has learned that during a routine stop-and-search at the time
police found a young Muslim man with a number of the stickers in his
possession. He was released without charge on the advice of the Crown
Prosecution Service. Police also had CCTV images of a second unidentified
Muslim youth posting the stickers at a local railway station, but refused to
release the pictures for several weeks.
Peter
Tatchell, the gay human rights campaigner, said: “The police said no-one was
allowed to talk publicly about this because they didn’t want to upset the
Muslim community. We’ve made very clear the difference between the Muslim
community as a whole and these particular fundamentalists, and the fact that
the police wouldn’t publicly say what they knew was an absolute disgrace.”
When the
CCTV footage was finally released, in early April, the culprit was quickly
identified as 18-year-old Mohammed Hasnath, who last week pleaded guilty to a
public order offence and was fined £100. Jack Gilbert, of the Rainbow Hamlets
gay group, said a more serious charge should have been brought. “The vast majority
of the community saw the material as threatening, but the police were not
willing to accept it as threatening,” he said.
Islamic Mayor Lutfur Rahman. |
In the
same week that it issued a press release condemning the anti-gay stickers, the
mosque was also due to host a “gala dinner” with Uthman Lateef, a homophobic
hate preacher.
The
mosque is controlled by a fundamentalist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe,
which says that it is dedicated to changing the “very infrastructure of
society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed ...
from ignorance to Islam.”
The IFE’s
community affairs co-ordinator, Azad Ali, is chairman of the Muslim Safety
Forum, an organisation officially recognised by the Met as its “principal
[liaison] body in relation to Muslim community safety.” Mr Golds said: “This
relationship may explain the police’s feebleness.” The IFE also has close links
to the Tower Hamlets mayor, Mr Rahman.
There is
no suggestion that any mosque official has been personally involved in any act
of violence or intimidation. However, in an email obtained by The Sunday
Telegraph, one IFE activist, Abu Talha, used the name of the group to threaten
a local Muslim woman who ran a dating agency.
“I am
asking you kindly to stop these activities as it goes against the teachings of
Islam,” he wrote. “Let me remind you that I have a huge network of brothers and
sisters who would be willing to help me take this further…If by tomorrow you
haven’t changed your mind … then the campaign will begin.” The dating agency
has now closed and the woman has left the area.
Mr Ahmed
Ullah said: “There has been a gradual increase in these kinds of attacks,
that’s for sure.” A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “When any
allegation of crime is made to us, we investigate appropriately. We will always
take action against hate crime in accordance with, and within the confines of,
the law.”
(Bengali-Muslim Crime Gangs of Tower Hamlets)
(Muslim Takeover of London's Luton)
Related posts at following links:
MosqueBusters: Busting the Islamic Beachheads
Fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe controlled East London Mosque. |
Related posts at following links:
MosqueBusters: Busting the Islamic Beachheads