A 40-year-old man has been charged with assault after an attack on an imam inside Regents Park Mosque.
The assault which left the imam critically injured, has highlighted fears that Muslims are suffering a sharp increase in race attacks, following terrorist attempts to blow up clubbers and holiday seekers this summer.
Ryan Donegan, 40, was charged with committing grievous bodily harm and assaulting a police officer, the police said in a statement.
The 58-year-old cleric, suffered heavy blood loss and damage to both eyes, Mosque officials said.
Al-Dubayan, the mosque’s spokesman, described the gruesome attack in detail.
He said: “The 58-year old imam, who did not want to be named, was attacked on Friday morning after the man, who was wearing a cross, entered the mosque claiming that he wanted to be converted to Islam.
“The imam offered him dates and explained to him about Islam and suddenly the man threw himself on the ground and began saying something the imam did not understand.
“Then he suddenly got up and began punching the imam on his forehead until the imam fell on the floor.
“The man then stood on top of the imam and began poking into the eyes of the imam with his fingers, damaging them badly. The imam tried to defend himself but could not free himself.”
A spokeswoman for Ruth Kelly's Department for Communities and Local Government, said: “Any crime motivated by a prejudice against a person's race or religion is deplorable and we are committed to doing all we can to support the police in this matter."
That man clearly belongs behind bars.
Comments (2)
So the government has chosen to stick its nose into this matter. If the imam had been beaten up by a Muslim, the government wouldn't care, but because it's by a white guy and can therefore be perceived as a crime of religious hatred, the communities and local government department wants to get involved. If punishments for nasty crimes were tough enough, attaching hate charges wouldn't be necessary. My other point is, that the Muslim Council of Britain wants to blame the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media. Well attacks in Scotland on Muslims have increased since the car bombing of Glasgow Airport. Rather than always blaming others and never taking responsibility for their actions, why don't Muslims say "if we didn't go killing innocent civilians with gas, transforming children into hostage-beheaders, threaten violence all over the world, commit honour crimes, take children out of school and send them to Pakistan to get married, riot around the world over some cartoons in a country most people haven't visited etc", people might not dislike us so much? Finally, I notice a huge media bias here. When there are bad things being done by Muslims, the BBC will always find somebody who shows understanding for those bad things happening. If they're impartial, why haven't they done the same in this case?
Posted by Senior | August 14, 2007 10:36 PM
Posted on August 14, 2007 22:36
Behind bars or, more likely, in a secure mental hospital. Very unpleasant episode. Without in any way wanting to justify the attack, I suspect that this type of assault would be less likely if more UK Muslims were more vocal, assertive and demonstrative in their opposition to Islamist aggression in this country and outside it. Their apparently feeble response has left many UK residents with the impression of Muslim community-wide support for terrorists and for an Islamification agenda. I expect that this is not true - but we just don't hear very much to the contrary - a failing of our media or of our Muslim residents? I don't know...
Posted by anon | August 14, 2007 6:40 PM
Posted on August 14, 2007 18:40