UK Police Investigating Letters Laying Out Points System For Attacking Muslims

UK Police Investigating Letters Laying Out Points System For Attacking Muslims

11 April 2018

People across the country received letters saying they could earn points for various violent acts on "Punish A Muslim Day."

By Carol Kuruvilla, Huffington Post

Counterterrorism police in the United Kingdom are investigating reports that people across the country are receiving letters that encourage them to commit violence against Muslims.

The letters, which were reportedly mailed to residences in London, Yorkshire and the Midlands, call on people to participate in "Punish A Muslim Day" on April 3. They say participants can earn points for different violent acts: Pulling a Muslim woman's headscarf is worth 25 points, for example, while throwing acid in a Muslim person's face is worth 50 points; killing Muslims with a "gun, knife, vehicle" or other device is worth 500 points, and burning or bombing a mosque is worth 1,000.

The author of the letters encourages people not to allow the "white majority nations of Europe and North America" to become overrun by those who want to "turn our democracies into Sharia-led police states."

"They have hurt you, they have made your loved ones suffer," the letter reads. "They have caused you pain and heartache. What are you going to do about it?"

The U.K.'s Counter Terrorism Policing North East, one of five counterterrorism units in the country, is taking the lead on the investigation. The group received reports from local police that letters were sent to people in the West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Metropolitan police force areas.

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin Snowden, head of the counterterrorism unit, called on anyone with information about the letter campaign to contact their local police.

Tell MAMA UK, an organization that tracks anti-Muslim hate crimes, said the number of reports it has received about these letters has reached the "double figures."

Riaz Ahmed, a politician in West Yorkshire County, told The Mirror that he received one of the letters. He said it wasn't addressed to anyone in particular.

"When I opened it and saw the content, I was horrified," Ahmed said.

The Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella organization representing Muslim groups across the country, said the letters have "caused deep distress and alarm."

"Sadly it is reflective of hate against Muslims which continues to manifest itself alongside the rise of the far-right," the group said Saturday in a statement.

British Muslims have seen a rise in Islamophobic hate crimes and threats in recent years. Tell MAMA UK's annual report for 2016 documented a 47 percent rise in the number of street-based anti-Muslim incidents as compared to the previous calendar year. Fifty-six percent of the victims of those incidents were female, while 66 percent of the perpetrators were male.

A British man drove a van into a crowd of worshippers near a London mosque in June, killing one person and injuring 12 others. The driver, Darren Osborne, was sentenced to 43 years in prison on Feb. 2 after being convicted of murder and attempted murder.

Tell MAMA UK documented another letter campaign calling for violence against Muslim worship spaces last year. So far, no link has been established between the two campaigns.

"Incidents like this are rare but we urge vigilance and calm," Tell MAMA UK said in a statement.

Leaders Of British Far-Right Group Retweeted By Trump Found Guilty In Islamophobia Case

Britain First has a history of inciting religious hatred.

By Willa Frej

Jayda Fransen and Paul Golding, leaders of the far-right group Britain First, were found guilty Wednesday of religiously aggravated harassment after trying to promote Islamophobia during a trial last year.

President Donald Trump drew fierce condemnation after he retweeted a series of overtly Islamophobic videos shared by Fransen on Twitter last November. The videos purported to show violent crimes committed by Muslims, including one in which a boy beats another boy on crutches. All three videos were determined to have been taken out of context by Fransen.

Trump and his administration were unapologetic about the retweets. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hailed the retweets as a way to raise awareness about "real threats we have to talk about."

It took Trump until January of this year to say he could possibly apologize ― without apologizing outright.

"If you are telling me they're horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologize if you'd like me to do that," he said in an interview with British television personality Piers Morgan. "It was done because I am a big believer in fighting radical Islamic terror."

Britain First is widely known in the U.K. for spreading Islamophobic and racist videos, including many proven to be fake. The charges against Fransen and Golding stemmed from a trial last year during which three Muslim men and a teenager were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl.

Golding and Fransen passed out leaflets and filmed videos meant to incite religious hatred during the trial, and went to one of the defendants' homes to hurl insults from outside.

"It was a campaign to draw attention to the race, religion and immigrant background of the defendants," Judge Justin Barron said in announcing the convictions of Fransen and Golding. He said their actions "demonstrated hostility" toward Muslims.

The two have been previously convicted of similar charges. In 2016, Fransen was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for approaching a woman wearing a hijab and telling her that she kept her hair covered so that she wouldn't get raped.

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