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| Britain | |
| Muslim supremacist grafitti on war memorial ruled "not racist", perp walks free | |
| 2010-05-02 | |
Tohseef Shah, 21, could have faced a tougher sentence if the court had accepted that the insults - which included a threat to kill the Prime Minister - were inspired by religious hatred. But - citing a loophole in the law - the Crown Prosecution Service chose not to charge him with that offence and he escaped with only a two-year conditional discharge and an order to pay the council £500 compensation after admitting causing criminal damage. Yesterday the decision was attacked by politicians and veterans who were shocked by the desecration of the memorial in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism sub-committee, said: 'This is an outrage against our war dead.' Shah sprayed the words 'Islam will dominate the world - Osama is on his way' and 'Kill Gordon Brown' on the plinth of the memorial in December. He was arrested after his DNA was found on the discarded spray-can but refused to give an explanation for his actions or show any remorse, a court heard. A file was sent to lawyers at the Counter Terrorism Division of the CPS in London to see if there was a racially or religiously motivated connotation. However when Shah appeared before magistrates this week, prosecutor Andrew Bodger said: 'It was decided there was not enough evidence to prove this, and they decided it was politically motivated.' Defending, Mumtaz Chaudry said Shah did not hold extremist views. 'This is nothing to do with his religious beliefs, his family's beliefs or his cultural beliefs,' he said. 'He is just an ordinary guy. 'He is remorseful, but at the time of his interview he was simply answering questions and didn't realise that was the right time to show remorse.' Community leaders among Burton-upon-Trent's 4,000-strong Muslim population also slammed Shah's actions. Khadim Thathall, a former president of a mosque in the town, said: 'This young man has clearly been radicalised by groups which are looking to cause trouble and it's a pity that the court hasn't been able to deal with him more strictly.' Shah - believed to be a former student of De Montfort University in Leicester - uses as his Facebook profile photograph a flaming lion's head superimposed on crossed Kalashnikov rifles. He lives with his parents in a £200,000 detached house and works at his father's car spares shop. Last night, he refused to discuss the case. Instead he appointed Abdullah Ibn Abbas, who described himself as spiritual leader of a group called Road to Jannah, to speak on his behalf. He said: 'It really doesn't concern us how the British people feel about the graffiti he wrote - the real outrage should be about the thousands of Muslims who are being killed and butchered as a result of British foreign policy.' The CPS said Shah's offence could not be charged as a hate crime because the law requires that damage must target a particular religious or racial group. It said: 'While it was appreciated that what was sprayed on the memorial may have been perceived by some to be part of a racial or religious incident, no racial or religious group can be shown to have been targeted.' The case comes after a senior judge ruled on Thursday that Christian beliefs had no right to protection by the courts. Lord Justice Laws told Christian counsellor Gary McFarlane he had no right to appeal after he was sacked for refusing to give sex therapy to a gay couple. The judge said legal protection for views held purely on religious grounds would be 'irrational'. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #21 Thanks, Besoeker, but....I don't qualify for acceptance as totalled by systems that no longer exist. |
| Posted by: Rhodesiafever 2010-05-02 22:32 |
| #20 Come to the States Eli. I think I can find something around the estate in .303 that you'll rather fancy, and a nice range nearby as well. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-05-02 21:34 |
| #19 What law? BNP advocate arming the citizens, the only party to do so. I won't vote for them as they are indiscriminate in their discrimination, even if I do want my weapon back. UKIP for out of the EU, even if it's a coalition, to give the Tories some spine. Thinking only of my children... |
| Posted by: Rhodesiafever 2010-05-02 20:05 |
| #18 And the open disrespect for the law. Something assimilated Americans rarely do. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-02 12:32 |
| #17 Assimilation is the issue. And the open disrespect for the law. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-02 11:22 |
| #16 More evidence that the UK is circling the drain. They need a revolution. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-05-02 10:35 |
| #15 Would it be too much to expect Mr. Shah to have an 'accident' whilst walking some some dark and stormy night while some vets just 'happened' to be nearby? That would probably happen here if'n you were to phuck with our boys.... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2010-05-02 10:09 |
| #14 Assimilation is the issue. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-02 10:07 |
| #13 Throw in a little Zeno Most Americans aren't xenophobic or against immigration. I'm quite sure I'm not unusual in having grown up in a bilingual household whose elders immigrated here. OTOH many Americans are against the failure of the government to enforce laws and to make immigration an ordered process. And they have a distressing tendency to object to violent drug gangs made up of people here illegally taking over their neighborhoods, killing their neighbors and taking increasingly bold high power rifle shots at law enforcement helicopters. One suspects there's a bit of that attitude going around in the UK these days too. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-05-02 09:52 |
| #12 But don't try this at home kids. The Europeans are much better at it than we unsophisticated Yanks. Let's keep it that way. Ditto for the far left and the anarchists, for that matter. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-05-02 09:44 |
| #11 Damn straight, it's like they're made for each other. Throw in a little Zeno and you got yourself a tall glass of LOL Gypsies. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2010-05-02 09:44 |
| #10 Ah, so the BNP is both nationalist and socialist! And remember kids, nothing goes with socialism like nationalism. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-02 09:38 |
| #9 Socialism with a different group to pick on = right wing according to the MSM. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-05-02 08:40 |
| #8 Nah - IIUC they're mid to far left in every respect, labelled as right-wing only by the Left and the media owing to their racist tendencies. Until the issue of race comes up they sound just like the Lib Dems or (old) Labour. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-05-02 07:38 |
| #7 Thanks. I thought BNP had also thrown off the socialist part. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-02 06:58 |
| #6 Nimble, agreed re UKIP - they have the best policies all-round, but the BNP cater for disillusioned Labour voters who stick to the big, protectionist government mantra but would like all ethnics deported. The BNP is about as genuinely right wing as the Nazi party. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-05-02 06:45 |
| #5 Cameron is a conservative in brand name only. The only hope is UKIP or (hold nose) BNP. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-05-02 06:35 |
| #4 the real outrage should be about the thousands of Muslims who are being killed and butchered as a result of British foreign policy.' I've heard this somewhere... |
| Posted by: Bugs Spealing3182 2010-05-02 04:24 |
| #3 'He is remorseful, but at the time of his interview he was simply answering questions and didn't realise that was the right time to show remorse.' Scratches head... |
| Posted by: Bugs Spealing3182 2010-05-02 04:23 |
| #2 One can hope. I wouldn't expect a sea-change, and it's more likely than not that the most loony party re immigrant pandering (the Lib Dems) will end up in coalition government. Probably the only hope for positive change is a Conservative outright majority, but that's unlikely. Labour have deliberately encouraged mass immigration during their time in power over the past 13 years in an effort to multiculturalise (i.e. Balkanise) the population, to facilitate the left wing practice of divide-and-rule, and to boost their support base with an injection of impressionable and poorly educated individuals. They have partially succeeded in these aims but they're tanking in the polls and Brown is on the way out. The only advantage they have left after all this treachery is a scandalous rural/urban and national constituency bias which could easily result in them coming third in the popular poll and yet still retain the largest number of MPs in parliament. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-05-02 01:12 |
| #1 One hopes the upcoming election will alter the trajectory a bit. I hope it alters them a lot. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-05-02 00:51 |