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18 Dec 2011 By Alexandra Rucki A man with mental health problems racially
assaulted Muslim worshippers and attempted to set fire
to a mosque, a magistrates court heard. Damian Royston Smith, 30, of Lambourne Gardens,
Essex, harassed worshippers at the Tooting Islamic
Centre, in Upper Tooting Road, over five days. Wimbledon Magistrates Court heard Smith converted
to Islam seven years ago but lost contact with the
Imam Suliman Gani. On November 15 last year Iftikhar Hussain, a
volunteer security worker at the mosque, said he saw
Smith watching children going to evening classes. Mr Hussain asked him to leave, but he began
shouting racist abuse outside the prayer room and the
mosque. He went on to charge into the mosque doors with a
whisky bottle. The next day Smith barged Vase Siddiqi and shouted
racist abuse at him outside the mosque, but Mr Siddiqi
was told the imam was dealing with the situation. Later on in the day he saw him lying down outside
the mosque and decided to report the assault to the
police. Two days afterwards two policemen arrested Smith
for trying to set fire to the mosque with a plastic
bag filled with tomato tin cans and matches. He said he had been sleeping rough for the past few
days and wanted to be arrested so he had somewhere to
sleep. Prosecuting, Mrs Trudy Scott said: "It all happened
in a short space of time because he was having issues
with the mosque. "The imam said he had converted to Islam seven
years ago and lost contact, he had lost his mother and
was going through a difficult time." Judge Mrs Otomosho remanded Smith in custody for
three weeks for a mental health report to be prepared. He will next appear at Wimbledon Magistrates on
February 8. During Fox News' South Carolina debate, Texas
Governor Rick Perry suggested it might be time for
Turkey to be kicked out of NATO, saying the country
was being ruled by what many would perceive to be
Islamic terrorists. Perry's response might surprise
many, as Turkey is a longstanding US ally in NATO, and
a critical diplomatic partner engaged in "a working
relationship that is one of the most important but
least discussed developments shaping (2011)'s change
in the Arab world." |
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