 Two Muslim teenagers have admitted drawing burkas on advertisements of scantily-clad women because they offended their religious views.
In one incident, Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, both 18, used black paint to draw the traditional headdress over a model in a poster for Lynx deodorant. The vandals said it was a 'sin' for the woman to remain uncovered and they were 'just trying to do good'. They also painted over faces in several other advertisements, including one for the Nicolas Cage film Drive Angry.
| Once again, the Muslim crank turns out to be nothing more than a tarted up criminal. Also, these boys need to retake the sex ed. class they skipped before they dropped out of school. Normal people notice that Nicholas Cage is not a scantily clad woman. |
Thames Magistrates' Court in Bow, East London, was told the pair were caught red-handed after members of the public called police.
| It takes an awful lot to get the British public to call in the coppers. The lads must have been outstandingly obnoxious. |
They had been seen painting over a female angel in the advertisement for Lynx at a bus shelter in February. Paint was also applied to the other side of the hoarding, which carried the poster for Drive Angry.
When police arrived the teenagers gave 'full and frank admissions', said Taiwo Akinrowo, prosecuting. He said: 'They told them that the way the women had been photographed was against their religion and they said it was a sin in Islam for a male to look twice at a woman who is not covered.
| Their religion requires their women to dress modestly, and for Muslims to avoid depicting Mohammed's face lest idolatry result. These are merely images of non-Muslim women, intended for the pleasure of the viewer -- how is this a problem? |
'Both have admitted painting over them. At first, they did not think it was a bad thing to do but they accept that it was not legal because it was not their property.' The youths admitted six counts of criminal damage.
Hasnath said: 'If someone was to look at our wife or mother or daughter with a bad intention we would not like it, so we were just trying to do good.'
| But as these were not your womenfolk, who are you to protest? |
Hasnath, of Poplar, and Tahir, of Tower Hamlets, were each told to pay costs of £283 and were released on a 12-month conditional discharge.
| A more creative approach would be to also require the clever lads to strip off the damaged posters and replace them with the exact same thing. |
The case came only days after Islamic extremists started a poster campaign proclaiming areas where Sharia law 'enforcement zones' have been set up. The messages order that there should be 'no gambling', 'no music or concerts', 'no porn or prostitution', 'no drugs or smoking' and 'no alcohol'.
| How is that working for them? |
Community leaders in East London denounced those behind the posters as 'small-minded idiots'. |