The Muslim News - Brief UK News

Issue 249, Friday 29 January 2010 - 13 Safar 1431

Brief UK News

RAF medic has race and religious abuse claims rejected
A Muslim RAF medic who claimed he was racially abused and assaulted by senior colleagues has had his case rejected on Jan 5. The serviceman says he was called “P@ki” and “terrorist” as well as being grabbed around the throat and threatened with a beating while serving in Afghanistan in 2007. He had also complained about inadequacies in the way his complaints were dealt with by the military’s Equal Opportunities Inquiry Team on 2007. The tribunal ruled, “The complaints of direct race discrimination and harassment under the Race Relations Act 1976 in relation to matters that took place on March 9 2007 are out of time, do not form part of a continuing act and it is not just and equitable to extend time and there is no jurisdiction to consider these complaints, which are dismissed. All other complaints of direct race discrimination and harassment under the Race Relations Act 1976 fail.”

Asylum seeker threatened to set himself alight, jailed
An asylum seeker threatened to set himself alight in front of his MP after he thought his 16-year battle to stay in the country had failed was jailed on Christmas Eve. Abdel Zahali, 51, was jailed for 10 months for making the “cry for help” to Liverpool MP Louise Ellman after receiving negative information about his asylum application. The MP had helped Algerian-born Zahali with his efforts to be granted permanent asylum. On Sept 21, 2008 Ellman found Zahali in her office corridor doused in liquid. She persuaded him to go to the toilets with her male assistant to take his sodden clothes off. Zahali’s barrister said his client had taken the drastic step because he felt he was “at the end of the road.” The politician had written to the court urging the judge to show mercy. But Judge David Aubrey QC said he had to balance his sympathy for Zahali with his duty to protect the public. Ellman thought it was likely Zahali will now be allowed to stay in the UK.

Work begins at Muslim centre in Kilmarnock
Work has begun on transforming a Kilmarnock pub into a Muslim education centre and mosque. The Al-Huda Educational Society of Kilmarnock is turning the Hillhead Tavern into a Muslim community centre and Ayrshire’s first mosque. New signs were put up, the plan is for the former pub to be converted into a mosque and including separate space for a ladies

Milton Keynes Association buy plot for central mosque
The Milton Keynes Muslim Association (MKMA) has secured a one acre plot of land in Central Milton Keynes to build a mosque and cultural centre. MKMA will submit plans to the Council planning department.

Executed man’s family slam Britain
Relatives of the Akmal Shaikh have said the Govt’s failure to prevent his execution in China showed Britain’s “powerlessness in the world”. Akmal Shaikh was killed by lethal injection on Dec 29, 2009 despite pleas for his mental health to be considered. PM Gordon Brown had called Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to urge him to halt the execution of Shaikh, who is believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder.
Chinese officials warned the British Govt not to meddle in their judicial affairs and insisted that Shaikh had “no previous medical record” of mental illness. Shaikh’s cousins Amina and Ridwan Shaikh said the British Govt had shrunk from confronting China earlier because of fears it could harm the UK’s economic interests.
“Britain’s economic dependence far outweighs these ‘individual cases’,” they wrote in a letter to a newspaper. They added, “Did the British Government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?” This is an example of Britain’s powerlessness in the world.”

Somali driver attacked in cab
A Somali taxi driver he had never been as frightened in his life as the moment he was attacked by a drunken racist thug. Jamie Roberts hurled racist abuse at Muktar Hassan before punching him the face and putting his foot through his car window. Roberts was given a suspended jail sentence and placed on an electronic tag on Jan 9, when he was sentenced for racially aggravated assault and criminal damage at Bury Magistrates Court.
Hassan picked up three men from a pub in Breightmet at around midnight last May 24, and began driving them when Roberts shouted racist abuse at Hassan. He suddenly put his hands over Hassan’s eyes, forcing him to brake hard. Roberts then punched Hassan, before getting out of the taxi and turning around to kick him in the chest through the open door. Hassan called the police and watched Roberts go into a house in Kentmere Road.
When police arrived a woman came out of the house and told them a stranger had let a room.

Britain gained from Iraq invasion, says Brown’s adviser
The PM’s chief Foreign Policy Adviser, Simon McDonald, said British companies have benefited from the award of oil contracts in Iraq because of the decision to help to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime. McDonald said UK firms had “done pretty well” in a recent auction of oil rights and that Britain also had “privileged access” to the Govt of Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki. “I do think we have privileged access and I do think that they take account of our views in reaching sovereign decisions,” he said to the Iraq war inquiry. McDonald, who served as UK Ambassador to Israel before becoming Brown’s adviser in 2007, said, “I think they have also given us credit when making key commercial decisions so in the recent auction of oil rights British firms did pretty well,” he said.

Racial attacker’s jailed
Three people found guilty of racially-motivated attacks in Evesham have been given jail sentences at Worcester Crown Court. Two men were beaten up after they were overheard speaking Kurdish as they returned from a supermarket trip.
Rebaz Kadir made two desperate 999 calls to police during the violence outside his home in Maycroft. Last December a jury found Thomas Crump, Daniel Moran and Carl Marchant guilty of two counts of racially aggravated assault on Kadir and his friend Jasim Ali, causing them actual bodily harm. The case had been adjourned for pre-sentence reports. The victims and Kadir's girlfriend returned from shopping on April 24 last year with the intention of cooking dinner, said prosecutor Sharon Bahia. But they were sworn at and told to go back to their own country before the men were attacked. A flurry of kicks and punches caused face and body injuries but no broken bones.

Teenager jailed for race attack
A teenager was jailed for a racist attack on January 18 in Cambridge.
Damon Smith, 19, attacked Shohan Shahid as he walked with friends from the Bonfire Night fireworks display on Midsummer Common. The court heard how Smith screamed racial abuse at the group of men before attacking Shahid with a knife sharpener. It left him with a 2cm gash at the top of his forehead. When arrested, he told police: “I am going to kill that **** - aren’t we at war with them?” Smith, of Victoria Road, admitted racially aggravated assault, possession of a weapon - the knife sharpener - and a bladed article.