A butcher has avoided jail after making “extremely threatening” phone calls filled with racist language to the Finsbury Park Mosque that left its caretaker frightened that the place of worship would be attacked.
Lee Harper, 47, made four calls from his own phone number to the north London mosque’s office between 3.30pm and 5pm on January 21.
During the calls, he said “I’m a butcher, I will come around with the boys”, “go back to your Middle East country” and referenced the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday.
The calls left the man who answered the phone, named as Mr Hussein, “extremely frightened and fearful”, according to his impact statement summarised by the prosecution.
Prosecutor Varinder Hayre said Mr Hussein was “fearful of the mosque being attacked as he was the caretaker” and that this was heightened because worshippers including women and children were around the site at the time.
Harper, of Highgate High Street, Hornsey, was sentenced to 10 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months.
District Judge Hina Rai said the calls, three of which were recorded, were “vile, abusive and extremely threatening” and raised the suspended sentence from eight weeks because of Harper’s “racial language”.
Prior to the ruling, Harper’s defence barrister told the court “he’s packed his bags, he’s made arrangements, because he knows full well” a custodial sentence “is a very realistic outcome”.
Judge Rai said Harper, who wore a pale-blue shirt in the dock, embarked on the “clearly targeted” campaign after watching a programme on the Southport killings.
The day after watching it, he drank alcohol at work and left the butcher’s to call the mosque, his defence barrister Daniel Cavaglieri said.
Each call was picked up by Mr Hussein and expletive-filled transcripts were read to the court.
Harper referred to the Mayor of London in one call, saying: “I’m going to come there tonight, arm yourselves because you’ve got no idea what’s coming, because I’ve got nothing to lose, and tell Mr Sadiq Khan f****** hell, he was coming a mile off.”
The butcher said his “mate” was unable to “claim even a little bit” of benefits “because all your brothers have got it”.
“But I will make an example of you, and you will read about me in the paper”, he said.
Harper repeatedly asked the victim for his name before questioning if he was called “Mohammed” or “Hamza”, referring to radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza who Harper claimed he used to see by the mosque.
Hamza led the Finsbury Park Mosque in the 1990s and is serving a life sentence in the US for terrorism offences.
Mr Hussein responded that he had no name and Harper told him he should kill his parents for that.
Police officers attended the butcher’s shop on January 24 and Harper nodded as the allegations were read to him, the court heard.
He was arrested and admitted making the calls but said he “doesn’t adhere to any racist ideologies”, it was told.
His defence barrister said Harper had intermittently struggled with alcohol for several years.
This manifested as “binge drinking when moments get a bit too much for him”, Mr Cavaglieri said.
The lawyer said Harper had shown “genuine remorse” and accepted his calls were “entirely vile”.
Tell MAMA Director, Iman Atta OBE read out a Tell MAMA community impact statement in the court about how anti-Muslim hate aimed at people in institutions can exacerbate wider fears for those who use the mosque in question. The judge also referenced Tell MAMA data on the numbers of anti-Muslim hate cases on an annual basis and Tell MAMA’s work was highlighted by the judge in the sentencing remarks.
Harper, of previous good character, pleaded guilty to one count of sending a message via telephone call that conveyed a threat of serious harm, namely “coming down to a mosque with references to butchering”.
He also admitted two counts of making menacing telephone calls to the Finsbury Park Mosque’s office.
Sentencing him, Judge Rai said the comments “consisted of racist language, derogatory comments and threatened harm”.
She warned of the online “misinformation” after the Southport killings.
False information about the identity of the attacker sparked riots in the UK this summer.
She added: “Finsbury Park Mosque has previously been attacked and this is well known, which will have added to (Mr Hussein’s) fear of reprisals.”
Darren Osborne ploughed a hired van into worshippers gathered near the place of worship in an Islamophobic terror attack on June 19 2017.
Harper was ordered to attend an alcohol treatment programme for three months and told he must carry out five days of rehabilitative activity, as well as 200 hours of unpaid work.
He was also handed a five-year restraining order barring him from contacting or attempting to contact Mr Hussein directly or indirectly, from contacting the mosque, or going within 200 metres of it.
The court was told that anti-Islamophobia reporting service Tell Mama recorded the highest number of “anti-Muslim hate cases” per year in 2024, since their records started in 2011 to 2012.
It heard that a total of 6,313 such cases were reported that year, a 165% rise on 2022.
The post Tell MAMA Makes Intervention to Support Finsbury Park Mosque Staff appeared first on TELL MAMA.
Categories: anti-Muslim hate, Finsbury Park Mosque, Highbury Corner Magistrate's Court, Lee Harper, mosques, News, Sentencing