“Britain remains the world’s leading recruiting ground for al-Qaeda.” — Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph.When she sought help from the police and a lawyer, “the family of the defendants were insulted that she had gone to the law. They wanted her back within the family fold… Therefore, it was decided that she should be forced to comply or be killed.” — Prosecutor of Ahmed A-Khatib, who murdered his wife for becoming “too westernized.”British school teachers are afraid to teach their students about Christianity out of fear of offending Muslims. — Roger Bolton, BBC Radio 4′s Feedback program.Rather than taking steps to protect British children, police, social workers, teachers… and the media deliberately played down the severity of the crimes [of Muslim sexual grooming gangs] in order to avoid being accused of “Islamophobia” or racism. — From the report “Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slavery.”A group of British lawyers launched a website, Sharia Watch UK. The group called Sharia law “Britain’s Blind Spot.”After Adebolajo, who murdered and tried to behead British soldier Lee Rigby with a meat cleaver, was given a “whole-life” prison term, his brother said his sibling was the victim of “Islamophobia.”“The problem of honor-based violence and forced marriages in England is “worse than people think.” — Claire Phillipson, Wearside Women in Need
The Muslim population of Britain reached
3.4 million in 2014 to become around 5.3% of the overall population of
64 million, according to figures extrapolated
from a recent study on the growth of the Muslim population in Europe.
In real terms, Britain has the third-largest Muslim population in the
European Union, after France and Germany.
Islam and Islam-related issues were
omnipresent in Britain during 2014, and can be categorized into four
broad themes: 1) Islamic extremism and the security implications of
British jihadists in Syria; 2) the continuing spread of Islamic Sharia
law in Britain; 3) the sexual exploitation of British children by Muslim
gangs; and 4) Muslim integration into British society.
What follows is a chronological review of some of the main stories involving the rise of Islam in Britain during 2014.
In January, an analysis of census data showed
that nearly 10% of the babies and toddlers in England and Wales are
Muslim. The percentage of Muslims among children under five is almost
twice as high as in the general population. By way of comparison, fewer
than one in 200 people over the age of 85 are Muslim, an indication of
the extent to which the birth rate is changing the religious demographic
in Britain.
Also in January, Muslim fundamentalists threatened
to behead a fellow British Muslim after he posted an innocuous image of
Mohammed and Jesus on his Twitter account. The death threats against
Maajid Nawaz, a Liberal Democrat Party candidate for British Parliament,
added to the growing number of cases in which Islamists are using
intimidation tactics to restrict the free speech rights of fellow
Muslims in Europe.
On January 16, a Muslim woman was arrested
by counter-terrorism police at Heathrow Airport as she was preparing to
board a flight to Turkey. Nawal Masaad, 26, is accused of trying to
smuggle £16,500 ($27,000; €20,000) in her underwear to jihadists in
Syria. She and her alleged co-conspirator, Amal El-Wahabi, 27—a Moroccan
who does not work and claims British social welfare benefits for
herself and two young sons—were the first British women to be charged
with terrorism offenses linked to the conflict in Syria.
On January 23, the head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit, Commander Richard Walton, revealed
that 14 British minors were arrested on charges linked to the Syrian
conflict in January alone, compared to 24 for the whole of 2013. He said
it was “almost inevitable” that some fighters would try to mount
attacks in Britain upon their return.
On January 16, British Islamist Abu Waleed outlined
his vision of an Islamic state in Britain, and called for Christians to
be humiliated so that they would convert to Islam. In a video, he said:
“If the Muslim sees a kaffir [non-Muslim] with nice clothes, the kaffir has to take his clothes off and give them to the Muslim. The kaffir, when he walks down the street, he has to wear a red belt around his neck, and he has to have his forehead shaved, and he has to wear two shoes that are different from one another. He [the non-believer] is not allowed to walk on the pavement, he has to walk in the middle of the road, and he has to ride a mule. That is, my dear brothers, the Islamic state.”
In Bristol, the city council approved a controversial plan to convert a former comedy club into a mosque. In Cambridgeshire, a Muslim group submitted plans to convert a warehouse into a new mosque. In Cambridge, locals opposed
a plan to build a £17.5 million (.5 million; €21 million) mega-mosque,
claiming it could be “a front for terrorism.” In Blackburn, home to
nearly 100 mosques, city councilors were urged to reject a plan to open a mosque in a residential neighborhood.
In Southend, local residents celebrated after a four-year battle resulted in the closing of an illegal mosque. In Newton Mearns, south of Glasgow, plans were abandoned
to build a mosque within the grounds of a school in one of the most
affluent suburbs of Scotland, due to local criticism of the move.
In Catherine-de-Barnes, a tiny village in western central England, local residents objected
to plans for a large, Muslim-only cemetery, which will include space
for 4,000 followers of Islam to be buried, and 75 parking spaces for
visitors. The village has a population of just 613, which means the
cemetery could eventually hold six-and-a-half times as many people as
Catherine-de-Barnes itself.
In February, official statistics showed
that net immigration to the United Kingdom surged to 212,000 in the
year ending September 2013, a significant increase from 154,000 in the
previous year. The new immigration data cast doubt on a pledge by Prime
Minister David Cameron to get net migration—the difference between the
number of people entering Britain and those leaving—down to the “tens of
thousands” before the general election in May 2015.
Separately, data released by the National Crime Agency showed a 155% rise in British children groomed by sex gangs during 2013.
Also in January, a Muslim extremist who hacked a soldier to death on a London street in May 2013, launched
a taxpayer-funded appeal against his murder conviction. Michael
Adebolajo, 29, who tried to behead the British soldier Lee Rigby with a
meat cleaver, maintained that he should not have been convicted because
he is a “soldier of Allah” and therefore Rigby’s killing was an act of
war rather than premeditated murder.
Adebolajo and his co-defendant, Michael Adebowale, 22, were found guilty by a jury in December 2013, and were sentenced
on February 26. Adebolajo was given a “whole-life” prison term and
Adebowale was given a minimum term of 45 years. Adebolajo’s brother said his sibling was the victim of “Islamophobia.”
On February 16, The Sunday Times reported
that about 250 British jihadists who went to train and fight in Syria
had returned to the UK and were being monitored by the security
services. Senior officials said the high number of “returnees”—five
times the figure that had been previously reported—underlined the
growing danger posed by “extremist tourists” going to the war-torn
region. MI5 and police said they feared that “returnees” could be
preparing a Mumbai-style gun attack on civilians, possibly in a crowded
public place in London.
On February 14, three Muslim vigilantes who terrorized innocent members of the public as the self-styled “Muslim Patrol” were banned from promoting Sharia Law in Britain for a period of five years.
In March, British authorities launched
an investigation into the source of a document that purportedly
outlined a plot by Muslim fundamentalists to Islamize public schools in
England and Wales. The four-page document described a strategy—dubbed
Operation Trojan Horse—to oust non-Muslim head teachers and staff at
state schools in Muslim neighborhoods and replace them with individuals
who would run the schools according to strict Islamic principles.
Also in March, a report entitled, “Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slavery,” showed
how officials in England and Wales were aware of rampant child
grooming—the process by which sexual predators befriend and build trust
with children in order to prepare them for abuse—by Muslim gangs since
at least 1988. Rather than taking steps to protect British children,
however, police, social workers, teachers, neighbors, politicians and
the media deliberately downplayed the severity of the crimes perpetrated
by the grooming gangs in order to avoid being accused of “Islamophobia”
or racism.
Meanwhile, official figures revealed
that record levels of Muslims are serving jail sentences and that the
numbers are still growing. Across England and Wales the proportion has
risen from 8% one decade ago to 14% now. In London, the figure is 27%,
which is more than double the 12% of the capital’s population who are
Muslim.
On March 27, ITV News reported
that the problem of honor-based violence and forced marriages in
England is “worse than people think,” but that many people are afraid of
speaking out because they do not want to be branded as being “racist.”
Claire Phillipson from Wearside Women in Need said:
“I have no doubt that all over the North East [England] first, second, third generation English young women are being forced into marriage.“Schools and communities are keeping silent about it, because they are concerned that they would be called racist, Islamophobic. They don’t quite know where the line between culture, religion and human rights should be drawn.”
On March 13, the Law Society, the main
professional association representing and governing the legal profession
in England and Wales, issued
ground-breaking guidance to help lawyers draft Sharia-compliant wills
and estate planning documents. The move effectively enshrined Islamic
Sharia law in the British legal system for the first time.
In April, the British government launched
a public consultation on whether or not to introduce student loans that
are compliant with Islamic Sharia law, which forbids loans that involve
the payment of interest.
Critics said that the dispute over
interest-bearing student loans follows stepped-up demands for
Sharia-compliant banking and insurance as well as credit cards,
mortgages and pension funds, which—taken together—are contributing to
the establishment of parallel Islamic financial and legal systems in
Britain.
Separately, Lloyds Bank was accused
of reverse religious discrimination after dropping overdraft fees for
Muslims but not for others. The bank said that non-Muslims would have to
pay up to £80 (€97, $135) a month for an overdraft, but that for
Muslims “there won’t be any charges.”
Meanwhile, the fast food giant Subway
removed ham and bacon from almost 200 outlets in Britain and switched to
halal (Arabic for “permitted” or “lawful”) meat alternatives,
apparently in an attempt to please its Muslim customers.
On April 9, Home Secretary Theresa May published
her annual report on the government’s strategy for countering
terrorism. The report concluded that battle-hardened British jihadists
returning from the war in Syria now pose the most serious threat to
British security.
On April 17, the Sheffield Crown Court found
Aras Hussein, 21, guilty of beheading his girlfriend, Reema Ramzan, 18,
with a kitchen knife in her apartment in Sheffield in June 2013. He was
sentenced to life, with a minimum of 20 years in prison.
On April 30, a jury at the Manchester Crown Court heard
how Ahmed Al-Khatib, 35, murdered his wife for becoming “too
westernized.” The prosecution told the jury that the mother of three had
been “in fear of her husband” and “believed he might one day kill her.”
She eventually sought help from the police and a lawyer. The prosecutor
said:
“The family of the defendants were insulted that she had gone to the law. They wanted her and her children back within the family fold… Therefore, it was decided that she should either be forced to comply or be killed.”
On April 19, the Charity Commission, a government agency that regulates charities in the UK, announced a crackdown on Muslim charities that send money to jihadist groups in Syria.
On April 24, British counter-terrorism officials launched
a nationwide campaign aimed at encouraging Muslim women to contact the
police if they were concerned that their family members or close friends
might be preparing to travel to Syria to fight.
Also on April 24, a group of British lawyers launched
a new organization called “Sharia Watch UK” to “highlight and expose
those movements in Britain which advocate and support the advancement of
Islamic law in British society.” The group called Sharia law “Britain’s
Blind Spot.”
In May, a senior adviser to Lutfur Rahman, the extremist-linked mayor of the heavily Islamized London Borough of Tower Hamlets, threatened
Muslim riots unless people stop questioning the manner of his
re-election. Rahman narrowly won re-election on May 23 as an
independent, but the result was cast into doubt amid dozens of reports
of voter intimidation and a chaotic count that took more than five days
to declare a final result. Rahman was expelled from the Labour Party in 2010 after The Telegraph revealed his close links to an Islamic extremist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe.
On May 19, a jury in New York found
Abu Hamza, the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London,
guilty on all 11 counts following a four-week trial. The one-eyed,
handless Hamza was charged with organizing a terrorist camp in the US,
taking hostages in Yemen and sending one of his followers from London to
train with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The guilty verdicts followed a
lengthy battle over his extradition from the UK, which began in 2004 but
was only carried out in 2012. At the same time, Scotland Yard and MI5
were accused
of ignoring warnings that Hamza was establishing an international hub
of terrorism in London as far back as 1999. Despite Abu Hamza’s
conviction, Britain remains the world’s leading recruiting ground for al-Qaeda.
On May 16, the Telegraph reported
that Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, a British-born “ringleader” of the Islamist
group Boko Haram, responsible for kidnapping hundreds of schoolgirls in
Nigeria, was radicalized while studying at a British university.
Ogwuche, the son of a retired Nigerian colonel, was said by fellow
students at the University of Glamorgan in Wales to call himself “The
Lion of Allah” and threatened to cut off the hands and feet of
non-Muslims while living in the UK.
On May 9, the mother of Nicky Reilly—a convert to Islam who tried to blow up a restaurant packed with diners in Exeter in 2008—told
the BBC’s Radio 4 that the would-be suicide bomber was turned into “a
loaded gun” by Islamic extremists in Britain. The 22-year-old changed
his name to Mohammad Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim in 2004 in tribute to
the jihadists who attacked New York on September 11, 2001. Kim Reilly
said: “They were telling him he would be in paradise with 44 virgins,
and he believed it.”
On May 7, Pizza Express, a British restaurant chain, revealed
that halal meat was being used in all of its chicken dishes in all of
its 434 restaurants across the UK. Under Islamic law, chicken can only
be eaten if the bird’s throat has been slit while it is still alive. A
Koranic verse is also recited during the ritual. On May 15, it emerged
that at least a dozen top universities, including Oxford University,
have been secretly serving halal meat to unsuspecting students.
On May 30, a Somalian doctor with a practice in Birmingham was struck
off the medical register after he was found by a medical malpractice
tribunal to have told an undercover reporter how to arrange female
genital mutilation abroad for her two nieces.
In June, Tablighi Jamaat, a radical Islamic group committed to “perpetual jihad” to spread Islam around the world, edged
one step closer to building one of the world’s largest mosques in
London after a star Muslim opponent of the controversial project was
intimidated into silence. The proposed mega-mosque would be built on a
16-acre site near the Olympic Stadium, and would have a capacity for
more than 9,000 worshippers.
On June 17, British Prime Minister David Cameron warned
that British citizens and other Europeans fighting alongside Islamist
insurgents in Iraq and Syria posed the biggest threat to Britain’s
national security.
But on June 22, the Financial Times reported:
“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has halved its counter-terrorism
budget even as officials warn of the most severe threat to the UK from
overseas terror groups since the London bombings in 2005.”
Also on June 22, the Sunday Times reported
that British jihadists are faking their deaths on the battlefield in
Syria in an attempt to return to the UK undetected. In one instance, the
martyrdom of a fighter in Syria was announced by his colleagues on
social media, only for police to arrest the “dead” individual at the
port town of Dover.
The Times also reported that a
British jihadist using the nom de guerre Abu Rashash Britani recently
posted a message on Twitter that said: “When we establish khilafah [an
Islamic state], a battalion of mujahideen shud head to UK & capture
David Cameron & Theresa May n behead them both :)”
Another jihadist from Birmingham named
Junaid Hussain tweeted that the “black flag of jihad” will soon fly over
Downing Street. He also tweeted: “Imagine if someone were to detonate a
bomb at voting stations or ambushed the vans that carry the casted
votes. It would mess the whole system up.” Hussain re-tweeted a warning
from a like-minded countryman for British people to “watch out,” because
“we’ll come back to the UK and wreak havoc.”
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old jihadist from Portsmouth named Muhammad Hassan promised a “killing spree” of British citizens if he were ever to return to Britain.
On June 16, a new law entered
into effect, which makes forced marriage a self-standing criminal
offense in England and Wales and is punishable by up to seven years in
prison. Research commissioned by the government estimates that up to
8,000 young women in Britain are the victims of forced marriages each
year, but charities say the actual number is far higher because many
victims are afraid to come forward.
On June 12, the BBC reported
that some Muslim families in Britain have begun hiring bounty hunters
to track down the victims of forced marriage who try to run away.
On June 25, Britain became the first Western nation to issue
Islamic bonds, completing a plan that was more than seven years in the
making. Investors placed £2.3 billion ($3.9 billion) of orders, more
than 11 times the amount of bonds on offer.
On June 24, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, said
that a Sharia-compliant alternative to the conventional student loan
could become available in the UK beginning in 2016. He said: “It would
be a tragedy if any student, particularly a Muslim student because of
concerns about so-called interest rates, were put off from going to
university.” He added: “This does not mean we are introducing Sharia law
in the UK.”
On June 6, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) admitted that non-Muslim soldiers are unknowingly being fed halal meat on military bases.
Also in June, an investigation found that all of the chicken and lamb meat being served at the University of Warwick is halal. A first-year student commented:
“It’s disgusting that only Islamic meat is provided and no others. How is it acceptable for me to eat blessed meat of another religion that is different to my own? To effectively impose a monopoly on my choice leads me to question whether their religion (Islam) is prioritized over my own.”
On June 9, government inspectors found
that the library at Olive Tree Primary School, a Muslim school in
Luton, included books that advocate stoning and lashing. Leaders of the
school accused the inspectors of “Islamophobia.”
In July, analysts at SITE, a group that monitors radical Islamic propaganda, reported
that a growing number of British women have moved to Syria to raise
children under the Islamic State. One such woman is Aqsa Mahmood, a
20-year-old woman from Glasgow, Scotland who left for Syria in November
2013.
Mahmood attended private schools and had
wanted to become a doctor, but she dropped out of university without
warning and vanished overnight in order to become a jihadist and marry
an IS fighter. Using the jihadist name of Umm Layth (Arabic for “Mother
of the Lion”) Mahmood uses social media to encourage other British
Muslim women to leave their families behind and join the jihad in Syria.
She wrote: “Once you arrive in the land of jihad, the Islamic State is
your family.”
On July 3, the Inner London Crown Court sentenced
six Muslims to a combined 36 years in prison for attacking two black
men with a baseball bat because they were not Muslim. Judge Ian Darling
said: “Not only was there a religious aspect to this offense, but there
was an undoubted racial element.”
On July 4, a British jihadist who uses the nom de guerre Abu Osama told the BBC’s Radio 5:
“If and when I come back to Britain it will be when this Khilafah, the Islamic state, comes to conquer Britain, and I come to raise the black flag of Islam over Downing Street, over Buckingham Palace, over Tower Bridge and over Big Ben.”
On July 6, a British jihadist using the alias Abu Dugma al-Britani, warned
that the Islamic State would capture Downing Street and hold executions
in Trafalgar Square. Using Twitter, he wrote: “Downing Street will be a
base for Muslims. Trafalgar Square is where public executions will take
place. Army of Islamic State is coming.”
On July 8, Lord Richard Scott, a former British Supreme Court judge, called on Christians to marry Muslims to tackle Islamophobia. He said:
“Of my two sons one has become a Muslim and of my two daughters one of those has become a Muslim, and I have 12 lovely grandchildren, seven of whom are little Muslims.
“The family relationships since those events took place have been as happily familial, as close and as good as any parent or grandparent could wish.
“I do just wonder that if an improvement is needed between the faith groups, one way of promoting that might be to encourage interfaith marriages.”
On July 14, a Muslim checkout worker at a Tesco supermarket in London refused
to sell non-Muslim customer ham and wine because it was Ramadan. The
checkout clerk told Julie Cottle that he would not touch the items
because they are considered forbidden by Islam and advised her to use
the self-service tills instead. When Cottle complained to the manager,
he backed the worker’s right to refuse to serve her because it was the
holy month of Ramadan and he was fasting. Tesco later apologized for the
incident and said the worker had been “spoken to.”
On July 18, a government report leaked to the Guardian revealed
that a group of Islamic fundamentalists, mostly men of Pakistani
origin, infiltrated the management of at least ten schools in
Birmingham, sometimes breaking the law in order to introduce Muslim
worship and sex segregation. Their activities were unimpeded by council
officials who were fearful of allegations of Islamophobia and who forced
ousted teachers to sign gagging clauses rather than treating their
complaints seriously as whistleblowers.
On July 28, the Star City entertainment complex in Birmingham barred
non-Muslims from entering a cinema because they were not celebrating
the Islamic festival Eid. One non-Muslim complained on Facebook:
“My friends family have just been refused entry at VUE cinema as they are not Muslim this is a shocking disgrace. If the shoe was on the other foot there would be uproar. Can you imagine banning all Muslims to star city because it’s Christmas.”
In August, data released by the Office of National Statistics [ONS] showed
that Mohammed was the most popular given to boys born in Britain in
2013. Although the ONS claimed that Oliver was the top name with 6,949
boys, it was in fact Mohammed when the top three spellings for the name
(Muhammad, 3,499; Mohammed, 2,887 and Mohammad, 1,059) are combined to
yield 7,445 boys.
On August 21, it emerged that there are now more British Muslims fighting for the Islamic State than for Britain’s military.
On August 23, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, warned
that radical Islam is on the rise and “imperiling our way of life,
threatening to undermine the values that have been bitterly won over the
centuries.” He called on Britons to “recover a confidence in our own
nation’s values. For too long we have been self-conscious and even
ashamed about British identity.” He added:
“By embracing multiculturalism and the idea that every culture and belief is of equal value we have betrayed our own traditions of welcoming strangers to our shore.
“The fact is that for too long the doctrine of multiculturalism has led to immigrants establishing completely separate communities in our cities. This has led to honor killings, female genital circumcision and the establishment of sharia law in inner-city pockets throughout the UK.”
On August 26, Alexis Jay, the leader of an independent inquiry in the sexual abuse of children in Rotherham, released
a horrifying report that found that gangs of mainly Muslim men of
Pakistani heritage had groomed, terrorized and abused at least 1,400
girls, some as young as 11, in Rotherham over a 16-year period between
1997 and 2013.
On August 31, the Independent on Sunday reported
that a House of Commons committee would launch an investigation into
whether Tony Blair’s Labour government knew about the Rotherham child
abuse scandal as far back as 2001, but refused to act because of his
government’s desire to pacify Muslim communities.
On August 30, a straw poll conducted
by the BBC’s Saturday Morning Live Show found that 95% of respondents
said that they think multiculturalism in Britain is a failure.
In September, new census data showed
that the number of Muslim children in Birmingham was greater than the
number who are Christian for the first time. Of Birmingham’s 278,623
children, 97,099 were registered as Muslim and 93,828 as Christian.
There were also 54,343 children who were recorded as following no
religion, showing the rising trend of atheism in the country.
On September 12, London Deputy Mayor Stephen Greenhalgh warned
that London children under the age of ten are being “trained to be
junior jihadis,” a disturbing sign of the growing extremist threat in
the capital. He said:
“It’s pretty horrendous when you hear how some of these children are being radicalized. The threat of radicalization of young people is real and this is a problem that is going to be with us not just for a couple of years, but for the next generation.”
On September 5, it emerged
that networks of Islamic radicals are recruiting British jihadists
through mosques and prayer centers. Previously, most British jihadists
were recruited via online networks. But a combination of a Turkish
border clampdown and a focus by counter-terrorist police on taking down
online networks has made recruitment on the ground more important.
On September 3, eight Muslim men were charged
with sexually abusing girls under the age of 16. The charges followed
series of police raids involving 120 officers in the Thames Valley. On
September 9, five Muslim men went on trial in Sheffield, accused of trafficking a 13-year-old girl for sex.
On September 10, the government announced
that Muslim students will be offered Sharia-compliant interest free
student loans in an effort to get more Islamic pupils to go to
university.
In September, a customer at a Leicester branch of KFC was refused
a hand-wipe as it might offend Muslims. Graham Noakes, 41, said staff
at the fast food chain’s outlet in St George’s retail park refused to
give him a hand-wipe because it was against its halal policy. Staff said
this was because the wipes are soaked in an alcohol-infused liquid and
alcohol is forbidden in the Koran.
In October, a 75-year-old retiree was arrested
for “racism” after saying “I’m not Muslim” when he was asked to remove
his shoes at security at Stansted Airport. Paul Griffith was charged
with causing “racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or
distress.”
In October, a taxi company in Rochdale, a town tainted by a child sex-grooming scandal perpetrated by Muslim gangs, began offering
customers “white” or “local” drivers on demand. The move came after two
local drivers of Pakistani origin were jailed for their part in the
rape and trafficking of young white girls.
On October 23, the BBC reported
that a memorial for Lee Rigby, a British soldier who was murdered by
two Muslim converts in May 2013, will not bear his name. Greenwich
Council said a stone would be placed in St George’s Chapel garden,
opposite Woolwich Barracks where Rigby was based, but that the memorial
would pay tribute to all fallen servicemen and woman. Local MP Nick
Raynsford said that a Rigby memorial would attract “undesirable interest
from [Islamic] extremists.”
On October 16, a new report showed
that in just six months, nearly 2,000 women and girls in England were
treated by the National Health Service after undergoing female genital
mutilation [FGM]. In September alone, 467 female patients in England
were newly identified as having been subjected to FGM. The data
published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre [HSCIC] were
the first official figures to have been published on the numbers of FGM
cases seen in hospitals in England.
On October 30, a new study found
that child sexual exploitation has become “the social norm” in many
parts of Greater Manchester. The report—Real Voices, Child Sexual
Exploitation In Greater Manchester—estimated that nearly 650 children
reported missing in towns across Greater Manchester in 2014 were at risk
of child sexual exploitation or serious harm. But despite almost 13,000
reports of child sex abuse in the past six years, only about 1,000
people have been convicted. The report’s author—Labour MP Ann Coffey—was
criticized for failing to address the fact that many street grooming
gangs are made up of Muslim men. She said it would be “wrong” to focus
on “Asian” gangs targeting teenage girls.
On October 30, a Populus survey found
that one in seven young British adults has “warm feelings” towards
Islamic State. A tenth of Londoners and one in 12 Scots view Islamic
State favorably, but sympathy for the militant group reaches its highest
levels among the under-25s.
In November, British police foiled
an Islamist plot to behead Queen Elizabeth at a Remembrance Day event
at the Cenotaph, a war memorial situated on Whitehall in London.
In London Borough of Croydon, a couple from Afghanistan threatened to kill their daughter if she rejected a forced marriage and to behead her if she contacted authorities for help.
On November 5, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, told
an international terrorism conference that his officers are “struggling
to cope” with the speed of immigration and because many of those coming
to Britain speak different languages and hold different views of
authority.
On November 16, senior officials at Scotland Yard advised
British police officers not to wear their uniforms on the way to and
from work amid concerns that Islamic extremists are plotting to target
them on the streets.
On November 10, The Times reported
that British intelligence officials warned senior ministers that the
scale of terrorist activity is so great that an attack is “almost
inevitable” in the coming months.
On November 26, the British government unveiled
sweeping new counter-terrorism measures which—if approved by
Parliament—would give the United Kingdom some of the “toughest powers in
the world” to fight Islamic terrorism.
On November 12, the BBC reported
that the British Islamist Abu Rumaysah skipped bail after being
arrested on terrorism charges and is thought to be in Syria, despite
being banned from leaving the UK. Rumaysah left London on a bus bound
for Paris after blundering police failed to confiscate his passport. On
November 2, 60 Minutes aired an interview with Rumaysah, who said:
“Ultimately, I want to see every single woman in this country [Britain] covered from head to toe. I want to see the hand of the thief cut. I want to see the adulterer stoned to death. I want to see Sharia law in Europe. And I want to see it in America, as well. I believe our [Sharia] patrols are a means to an end.”
On November 1, a new report by Sharia
Watch UK exposed the activities of Islamist speakers on British
university campuses. The report—Learning Jihad—documented
how Islamists are making anti-Semitic remarks, deriding Western notions
of human rights, advocating female genital mutilation and calling for a
raft of strict Sharia punishments such as stoning adulterers to death.
On November 11, the new Muslim owner of the exclusive Bermondsey Square Hotel in London abruptly banned
alcohol and pork from the bar and grill at the hotel, in order to run
it “in accordance with Sharia law.” The £220 ($340)-a-night hotel is
believed to be one of the first in the UK to introduce the strict Muslim
policy, but staff said the changes have caused business to plummet,
with many reservations cancelled.
Also on November 11, it was reported
that thousands of Muslim school children in East Lancashire were being
offered a pork-based vaccine as part of a major new flu immunization
program. The new nasal spray, which is made with gelatin derived from
pigs, is part of a pilot project, but Muslim leaders complained that the
decision not to offer an alternative was “outrageous” because they
consider the spray to be ‘haram’ or sinful. Public Health England, which
is leading the project, said in a statement: “There is no suitable
alternative to [the porcine-based] Fluenz [vaccine].”
On November 13, police in Manchester arrested
13 members of human trafficking gang after a pregnant woman was duped
into travelling to England before being sold into a sham Sharia law
marriage. The 20-year-old Slovakian woman, who was 25 weeks pregnant,
was tricked into flying to Luton airport in May believing that she would
be able to meet her sister. After meeting a man at the airport who
claimed to be her sister’s friend, however, she was taken to an address
in Oldham. She then discovered that she had been sold to a Muslim man
who had paid the gang £15,000 (€19,000; $23,000) to provide her a sham
marriage. Police say the purpose of the marriage, which took place under
a Sharia ceremony in Rochdale in July, was to improve the man’s chances
of avoiding deportation from the UK.
On November 10, the BBC reported
that police in Rotherham not only ignored, but actively obstructed
investigations into child abuse victims, apparently because the
perpetrators were Muslim. On November 19, the Birmingham Mail reported
that the Birmingham City Council “buried” a politically incorrect
government-funded report that revealed to sexual exploitation of young
white girls by Muslim men. The author of the report, Jill Jesson, told
the newspaper that the report was never published and all copies were to
be destroyed. She said:
“I was employed to do the work because I think they thought I would be objective,” she said. “I was told to reveal what I saw. I did – and some people didn’t like it.
“Every time a news item has come on about sexual grooming of young girls and girls in care, and the link, too, between private hire drivers, I have thought, ‘I told them about that in 1991 but they didn’t want to acknowledge it.’ I think the problem has got worse and worse over time.”
On November 24, the Law Society withdrew
controversial guidelines for lawyers on how to draft “Sharia compliant”
wills amid complaints that they encouraged discrimination against women
and non-Muslims. The guidelines advised lawyers on how to write Islamic
wills in a way that would be recognized by courts in England and Wales.
They set out principles that meant women could be denied an equal share
of inheritances while unbelievers could be excluded altogether.
In December, a radio presenter for the BBC Radio 4′s Feedback program, Roger Bolton, wrote an article for the Radio Times,
a weekly magazine, in which he warned that British school teachers are
afraid to teach their students about Christianity out of fear of
offending Muslims. Bolton said that this was creating a generation of
British youth who are ignorant about Christian culture and its role in
British history. He cited a study that found that a quarter of British
children indicated that they have never read, seen or heard of Noah’s Ark,’
that a similar proportion had never heard of the Nativity, that 43% had
never heard of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and that 53% had never
read, seen or heard of Joseph and his coat of many colors.
On December 10, a new report by a human rights group exposed the vulnerability of Muslim women living in Islamic “marriages” in the UK. The report—Equal and Free? 50 Muslim Women’s Experiences of Marriage in Britain Today—found
that the widespread practice of polygamy has left Muslim women without
legal rights upon “divorce,” entirely dependent on their “husbands” for
financial support, and often unable to leave sham “marriages” for fear
of social ostracism or bringing “shame” to their family.
On December 11, the House of Lords held
debates on female genital mutilation [FGM] and the “impact of Sharia Law
on the United Kingdom.” Lord Faulks, Minister of State for Civil
Justice and Legal Policy, cited research that “revealed that approximately 60,000 girls are at risk of FGM in the UK.” In the following debate, Baroness Cox said:
“The establishment of Sharia courts or councils in this country has
promoted the application of gender-discriminatory provisions in ways
which are currently causing considerable distress for many women.” She
also asked why “polygamy is allowed to flourish” in Britain even though
bigamy is illegal.
Finally, December saw the launch
of the faceless “Deeni Doll,” (deeni is Arabic for “faith”) which is
adorned with a traditional hijab headdress, but has no nose, mouth, or
eyes, in order to comply with Islamic rulings regarding the depictions
of facial features. The toy, which retails for £25 ($40), was designed
by a former teacher at a Muslim school in Lancashire. She said:
“I came up with the idea from scratch after speaking to some parents who were a little concerned about dolls with facial features. Some parents won’t leave the doll with their children at night because you are not allowed to have any eyes in the room. There is an Islamic ruling which forbids the depiction of facial features of any kind and that includes pictures, sculptures and, in this case, dolls.”Source: Breaking Israel News
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