Museum of London records call to prayer for Ramadan project

June 28, 2020 Article

The Museum of London is collecting objects to reflect how the Muslim community experienced Ramadan during lockdown.

It is part of a project to reflect Londoners’ lives during the pandemic to provide a record for future generations.

One strand will be Ramadan, from earlier this year, with the museum recording calls to prayer at the Musalla an Noor mosque in Hackney, east London, and documenting the experiences of young Muslims in west London.

“We are in the process of collecting a range of items ranging from photographs, film and audio recordings and physical objects to tell the stories of these families,” Aisling Serrant, who is leading the family strand of the project, said.

“Some of the key parts of Ramadan, such as spending time with family and friends and visiting the mosque, have not been able to take place this year or had to be adapted to virtual or socially distant means.

“It was important to capture the experiences of families at this time”.

It is hoped that all items will go in an online database but there are no plans for the overall project – to reflect the lives of Londoners during the pandemic – to go on display.

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Categories: call to prayer, Lockdown, Museum of London, News, Ramadan

Mayor tells vigil Reading community ‘shall not be divided’ by terror attack

June 27, 2020 Article

The mayor of Reading has said the town’s community “shall not be divided” by the recent terror attack at a vigil held in memory of the victims one week on.

Cllr David Stevens said the Berkshire town would always be “inclusive and diverse” at a private memorial event held in Market Place on Saturday evening.

David Wails, 49, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, and James Furlong, 36, lost their lives after the incident in Forbury Gardens that took place shortly before 7pm on June 20.

Following short speeches by local officials, family members of the three men were the first to lit candles in their memory.

Afterwards, the small group of relatives embraced in a huddle for a few moments, before speaking and laughing together.

Home Secretary Priti Patel joined a host of representatives from the Reading community in also lighting candles.

Cllr Stevens told the vigil that the attack had left Reading “feeling a mix of horror, disbelief and immense sadness.”

He added: “Just one week ago, friends and families were sat in Forbury Gardens, just a few yards from here, making the most of the warm weather on a summer’s evening and enjoying one another’s company.

“It was around now, the happiness and tranquillity of the evening was shattered in the cruellest and most horrific way.

“Three men lost their lives and several people sustained injuries. Others were forced to witness the most horrendous scenes.

“Last Saturday, Reading lost James Furlong, Joe Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails. To their families and close friends, we can only imagine your grief.” Around 50 people invited to the vigil stood in front of their socially distanced chairs for much of the half hour long event.

In the distance, behind a small podium set up for speakers, police tape from the large cordon still shutting off the roads connecting to Forbury Gardens could be seen.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Reading Borough Council was due to stream the event on its Facebook page to avoid a crowd gathering in Market Place.

But a large screen was also erected on nearby Broad Street for residents to watch proceedings.

The Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, James Puxley, paid tribute to Mr Wails, Mr Ritchie-Bennett and Mr Furlong at the vigil.

He said: “From what I hear they were honest lovely outstanding people and good law abiding citizens. “They did not deserve what happened to them. They had so many years ahead of them.

“Who knows what they would have achieved in life had they lived to an old age. Doubtless they would have achieved many good things that the community is now deprived of benefiting from.”

He also praised the emergency services and members of the public who helped the victims of the attack, some of whom “tore off their shirts to make bandages”.

Thames Valley Police chief constable John Campbell added his force’s condolences to the family of the victims.

He told them that Mr Wails, Mr Ritchie-Bennett and Mr Furlong had been “cared for and comforted by my officers and others who came to help them in in their final moments”.

Mr Campbell said Reading should take “pride” in how it has responded, which highlighted a “coming together of a diverse community, joined by the bond of humanity and a shared sense of injustice”.

Hailing the work of his officers, he also vowed to “seek justice for those who lost their lives and those that were harmed” in the incident.

Before the lighting of candles, the Bishop of Reading, The Right Reverend Olivia Graham, read a poem by Irish poet John O’Donohue.

Among those also lighting candles were the co-headteachers of the Holt School where Mr Furlong taught.

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Categories: mayor, News, Reading, terrorist attack

Mississippi moves toward stripping Confederate image from flag

June 27, 2020 Article

Mississippi legislators have taken the first steps toward erasing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, a symbol that has come under intensifying criticism amid nationwide protests against racial injustice.

The second-ranking officer in the Mississippi house, Jason White, told his colleagues: “The eyes of the state, the nation and indeed the world, are on this house.”

The house voted by more than the required two-thirds majority to suspend legislative deadlines and file a bill to change the flag.

The senate is expected to vote on the suspension later, which will allow debate on a bill as soon as Sunday.

Republican governor Tate Reeves said for the first time that he would sign a bill to change the flag if the Republican-controlled legislature sends him one.

He had previously said that he would not veto one – a more passive stance.

Mr Reeves said on social media: “The legislature has been deadlocked for days as it considers a new state flag.

“The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it’s time to end it. If they send me a bill this weekend, I will sign it.”

A bill will only need a simple majority to pass the house and senate. It will say that the current flag will be removed from state law.

A commission would design a new flag that cannot include the Confederate battle emblem but must include the phrase “In God We Trust”.

The new design would be put on the ballot for November 3. If a majority voting that day accepts the new design, it would become the state flag. If a majority rejects it, the commission would design a new flag using the same guidelines.

“I know there are many good people who … believe that this flag is a symbol of our Southern pride and heritage,” said Mr White, the Republican speaker pro tempore of the House.

“But for most people throughout our nation and the world, they see that flag and think that it stands for hatred and oppression.”

Republican representative Chris Brown of Nettleton appeared at a 2016 rally outside the state Capitol for people who want to keep the Confederate emblem on the flag.

He said on Saturday that the current flag and a proposed new design should both go on the ballot.

“I don’t think we can move forward together if we say, ‘Ýou can have any flag you want except … this one,’” Mr Brown said.

“If we put the current flag on the ballot with another good design, the people of Mississippi will change it. I believe that. Let’s not steal their joy. They want to show the world that they’re moving on.”

Mississippi has the last state flag that includes the Confederate battle emblem – a red field topped by a blue X with 13 white stars.

The battle emblem has been in the upper-left corner of the Mississippi flag since 1894. White supremacists in the legislature put it there during backlash to the political power that African Americans gained after the Civil War.

The Mississippi supreme court ruled in 2000 that the flag lacked official status.

State laws were updated in 1906, and portions dealing with the flag were not carried forward. Legislators put forward a flag election in 2001, and voters kept the rebel-themed design.

The current flag has remained divisive in a state with a 38% black population. All of the state’s public universities and several cities and counties have stopped flying it because of the Confederate symbol.

Influential business, religious, education and sports groups are calling on Mississippi to drop the Confederate symbol. Flag supporters say the banner should be left alone, or put on the statewide ballot for voters to decide its fate.

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Categories: Battle Emblem, Black Lives Matter, Confederate Battle Emblem, Confederate Image, Mississippi, News

YouTuber jailed for ‘despicable’ threat to bomb hospital treating Covid patients

June 18, 2020 Article

A YouTuber who recorded himself phoning a “truly despicable” bomb threat to an NHS trust dealing with Covid-19 patients has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Matthew Wain, who was angry at a supposed lack of treatment at Birmingham City Hospital during the first week of lockdown, told an emergency department worker: “Not being funny… after what I had done to me yesterday I would bomb the place, to be honest.”

Wain, 31, said of NHS staff: “After the way they spoke to me I hope they all die of the coronavirus because they would deserve it.”

The lengthy YouTube video, containing the threatening 10-minute phone call, was played to Birmingham Magistrates’ Court as Wain laughed in the dock.

In the footage, which had 81,000 views, Wain was wearing a vest and a cap back-to-front and said he wanted to speak to reception in the emergency department.

After being put through, he introduced himself as a YouTuber, levelled various allegations against staff, made a racist remark, and asked to speak to the nurse in charge.

During the rant, Wain was given a complaints line number by a female member of staff before predicting: “This is going to go viral and it’s getting put in the papers.”

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Categories: Birmingham Magistrate's Court, COVID-19, News, NS Trust, You Tuber

IS fanatic incited car, bomb and meat cleaver attack in Germany, court told

June 15, 2020 Article

An Islamic State-inspired fanatic incited a terror cell in Germany to commit a mass casualty attack with a car, bomb and meat cleaver, a court has heard.

Fatah Abdullah, of Arthur’s Hill in Newcastle, set about learning how to make a pressure cooker bomb to relay the information to continental conspirators Omar Babek and Ahmed Hussein.

He bought more than 8,000 matches, explosive pre-cursors, fireworks, fuses and a remote control detonator, the Old Bailey heard.

The court heard that ingredients to make gunpowder that Abdullah had obtained were never found, suggesting they had been used.

In encrypted chat on Telegram, the defendant encouraged the plotters in Germany to drive a car into a crowd, attack people with a meat cleaver and cause an explosion.

In one message, he said: “After you have set off the explosions, you target crowd or group of people with your car, you drive through them.

“Find a meat clever which is used by butchers, once you have ran them over with the car, get out of the car start attacking them with it.

“If you couldn’t attack them with a car after the explosion, attack them with knife, sword or meat cleaver.

“The aim is that you kill them and make them feel terrified and show them that (Islamic State), is here and Islam is here. The most important thing is that you carry out the jihad.”

The murderous plan was foiled in January last year when Hussein and Babek were arrested, the court was told.

Abdullah had been arrested by British police the month before.

He denied being involved in planning an imminent attack and attempted to explain away items at his flat.

He claimed he bought a pocket knife on Amazon to cut grass for his rabbits.

A food mixer from eBay was bought to make pizza dough, and an SAS-style balaclava was for when it was cold, he said.

Abdullah also told police that 200g of sulphur powder was for growing flowers and denied knowing about its use in the production of gunpowder, the court heard.

In March, Abdullah, 35, pleaded guilty to inciting terrorism overseas and engaging in conduct in preparation to assist others to commit terrorist acts.

Opening the facts of the case on Monday, prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC said: “Mohammed Abdullah incited a terror cell, based in Germany, to commit terrorist atrocities that would have caused mass fatalities.

“His encouragement was not limited to words. He researched, obtained and tested explosives in order to teach the German cell to carry out the terrorist attacks to maximum effect.”

Iranian-born Abdullah successfully sought asylum in the UK after arriving in 2005.

The defendant suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and became radicalised.

He had a black IS flag at his flat and a large amount of grisly propaganda videos on his phone, the court heard.

Images included animations of lorries exploding in well known UK landmarks, the court heard.

In a handwritten note, he wrote: “We will slaughter you as you did to us. We will chop you to pieces as you did to us.”

Mr Barnaby said Abdullah somehow became connected with cousins Hussein and Babek, who had sought asylum in Germany after travelling from Iraq in 2015.

The men in Germany went on to attempt to get a gun and gather components for an improvised explosive device, the court heard.

Following their arrest, a court in Hamburg found that “the acquisition of a firearm, like the attempt to purchase a pressure cooker or larger quantities of individual components of black powder or fireworks, ultimately failed because the defendants lacked the financial means required for this.

“Until the very end, the defendants were determined to implement their proposed plan in a place in Germany that was highly frequented by people.”

Hussein and Babek pleaded guilty to the preparation of a serious act of violent subversion involving unlawful handling of explosive substances and were sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

Abdullah is expected to be sentenced at the Old Bailey later.

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Categories: bomb and meat clever attack, Incited a Terror Cell, IS fanatic, News, Terrorist attack in Germany

Emmanuel Macron condemns racism but rules out removal of contested statues

June 14, 2020 Article

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to stand firm against racism but also praised police and insisted that France would not take down statues of controversial, colonial-era figures.

It was the first time Mr Macron has spoken on the issues since George Floyd’s death in the US unleashed protests around the world, including several in France, where demonstrators have expressed anger at racial injustice and police brutality, particularly toward minorities from France’s former colonies in Africa.

Unusually for a French leader, Mr Macron acknowledged that someone’s “address, name, colour of skin” can reduce their chances at succeeding in French society, and called for a fight to ensure that everyone can “find their place” regardless of ethnic origin or religion.

He promised to be “uncompromising in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination”.

However, he insisted that France will not take down statues of controversial, colonial-era figures as has happened in some other countries in recent weeks.

Amid calls for taking down statues tied to France’s slave trade or colonial wrongs, Mr Macron said “the republic will not erase any trace, or any name, from its history … it will not take down any statue”.

“We should look at all of our history together” including relations with Africa, with a goal of “truth” instead of “denying who we are”, Mr Macron said.

He did not address accusations of police violence but said forces of order deserve “the nation’s recognition”.

Mr Macron also announced that France will reopen nearly everything starting Monday after three months of virus confinement measures.

The president promised an internal audit into how his administration handled the virus, notably compared to other countries like Germany.

That was in addition to a parliamentary inquiry already under way.

Despite having one of the world’s best health care systems, France was dangerously short of all kinds of masks and testing capacity as coronavirus patients overwhelmed intensive care wards in March.

More than 80 lawsuits have been filed accusing his government of manslaughter, neglect or otherwise mishandling the virus crisis.

Mr Macron sent in the army to help and ordered strict lockdown measures that slowed the spread.

But nearly 30,000 people have died, about half of them in nursing homes, and more than 150,000 have been infected.

More than 200 new virus clusters have emerged since France started reopening May 11, according to the national health agency.

Meanwhile, his government is facing growing pressure to confront racism and police violence.

At least 15,000 people demonstrated in Paris on Saturday, the latest in a string of French protests galvanised by George Floyd’s death in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement, but increasingly focused on France’s own tensions between police and minorities.

In response, the government banned police chokeholds and vowed to stamp out racism among police — but that has now angered police unions, who say they’re being unfairly painted as white supremacists and staged protests of their own.

Calls are also mounting to reassess France’s colonial legacy, causing division within Mr Macron’s own camp.

Over the past two days, the culture minister denounced the decision to cancel a Paris showing of Gone With The Wind, a film long criticised as romanticising slavery, as contrary to freedom of expression.

And he firmly condemned activists who tried to take a piece of African art from a Paris museum dedicated to artwork from former colonies.

But government minister Sibeth Ndiaye, a close Macron ally and the most prominent black figure in current French politics, wrote an unusually personal essay Saturday in Le Monde calling for France to rethink its colour-blind doctrine, which aims at encouraging equality by ignoring race altogether.

“We must not hesitate to name things, to say that a skin colour is not neutral,” she wrote.

She called on the French to “confront our memories” about their history and find a “shared narrative” with former colonies.

Mr Macron’s office firmly denied a report last week that he was considering resigning and calling a snap election, but the rumour reflected the gravity of the French mood.

A new forecast last week from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development showed France’s economy will suffer more than most from the coming recession — and is not expected to improve much by the next presidential election in 2022.

The economy is expected to shrink at least 11% percent this year, pushing many out of work and torpedoing Macron’s goals of bringing down unemployment, rehauling the retirement system and making France more globally competitive.

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Categories: #BlackLivesMatter, Emmanuel Macron, France, George Floyd, News, Statues

PM sets up commission to look at ‘all aspects’ of racial inequality in UK

June 14, 2020 Article

Boris Johnson has pledged to establish a cross-government commission to examine “all aspects” of racial inequality in Britain.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister acknowledged that Britain had much more to do to deal with the issue.

He said the commission on race and ethnic disparities would look at “all aspects of inequality – in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life”.

Mr Johnson told broadcasters: “What I really want to do as Prime Minister is change the narrative so we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination.

“We stamp out racism and we start to have a real sense of expectation of success.

“That’s where I want to get to but it won’t be easy.”

The announcement follows two weeks of protest across the country by the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing in the US of George Floyd who died as a white police office knelt on his neck.

However the announcement, which included little detail, was sharply criticised by opposition parties.

For Labour, shadow equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova said: “We are in the midst of a global health pandemic that has sharply exposed deep structural inequalities which have long since needed urgently addressing.

“That the Prime Minister now says he wants to ‘change the narrative… so we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination’ is condescending and designed to let himself and his Government off the hook.

Liberal Democrat equalities spokeswoman Christine Jardine said the commission was a “welcome first step” but said the Government must go further.

“Too many people’s lives are blighted by discrimination, inequality and injustice. The Government must move further and faster to redress institutional racism in the criminal justice system and many other parts of our society,” she said.

The Telegraph reported that the new commission will report directly to Mr Johnson and also be overseen by Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch.

The paper said that an independent chairman or woman would be appointed to oversee the body which would comprised of people “with a mix of ethnic, social and professional backgrounds”.

The Prime Minister also used his article to defend the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, which some protesters want pulled down, and to warn against attempts to “photoshop” Britain’s cultural landscape.

He lauded Churchill as “one of the country’s greatest ever leaders”, saying it was the “height of lunacy” to accuse him of racism.

“I will resist with every breath in my body any attempt to remove that statue from Parliament Square, and the sooner his protective shielding comes off the better,” he wrote.

He went on: “It is not just that it is wrong to destroy public property by violence.

“I am also extremely dubious about the growing campaign to edit or photoshop the entire cultural landscape.

“If we start purging the record and removing the images of all but those whose attitudes conform to our own, we are engaged in a great lie, a distortion of our history, like some public figure furtively trying to make themselves look better by editing their own Wikipedia entry.”

Mr Johnson also condemned the counter protesters who clashed with police in London on Saturday as “far-right thugs and bovver boys”.

“It was right that a good number should have been arrested. They were violent.

“They were aggressive towards the police. They were patently racist.

“There is nothing that can excuse their behaviour,” he said.

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Categories: #BlackLivesMatter, Commission, News, Racial Inequality

Charge after man appears to urinate next to Pc Keith Palmer memorial

June 14, 2020 Article

A 28-year-old has been charged after a man was photographed apparently urinating next to the memorial dedicated to Pc Keith Palmer, the officer who was stabbed to death in the 2017 terror attack in Westminster.

Andrew Banks, of Stansted, Essex, has been charged with outraging public decency and will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, the Metropolitan Police said.

The image of a man urinating was widely shared on social media on Saturday as violent clashes between far-right protesters and police took place in central London.

Speaking on Saturday, Commander Bas Javid described the image as “disgusting and abhorrent”, while Home Secretary Priti Patel referred to the “desecration” of Pc Palmer’s memorial, and said it was “absolutely appalling and shameful”.

MP Tobias Ellwood, who gave first aid to Pc Palmer as he lay dying after being stabbed to death in the grounds of Parliament by Khalid Masood in 2017, said the image of the man urinating next to the memorial was “abhorrent”.

More than 100 people were arrested on Saturday at the London protest, and the violence was condemned by the Prime Minister as “racist thuggery” and described as “mindless hooliganism” by police.

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Categories: Charged, Man Urinating, News, Pc Keith Palmer, Urinating next to the Memorial, Westminster

Workers to begin untangling charred metal web on Notre Dame

June 7, 2020 Article

Workers suspended from ropes will be lowered into the charred remains of scaffolding that melted atop Notre Dame when the cathedral went up in flames to begin the delicate job of dismantling the 200 tons of metal.

The work will start on Monday and last through the summer months, according to the office overseeing the restoration of the centuries-old jewel of Gothic architecture, which was ravaged by fire on April 15 2019.

Two teams of five workers each will take turns descending on ropes into the heat-warped web of scaffolding, made up of 40,000 pieces, and cut with saws through metal tubes that fused together in the inferno.

The chunks will then be lifted out by a crane.

The imposing tower of scaffolding was erected before the blaze for the restoration of Notre Dame’s spire that was then toppled and destroyed by the flames.

Teams have spent months consolidating the structure with metal girders so it can be dismantled without collapsing.

The cathedral is still closed, and will be for several years during renovations.

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Categories: Charred Remains, News, Notre Dame, Work Starting

Egyptian doctor accused of FGM surgery on three girls

June 6, 2020 Article

A doctor and a father of three girls will be tried in an Egyptian criminal court over claims of female genital mutilation (FGM) surgery, a rights lawyer said.

Reda el-Danbouki, executive director of the Women’s Centre for Guidance and Legal Awareness in Cairo, said the procedures took place last week in the district of Juhaynah in Sohag province, 244 miles south of the capital Cairo.

He said the father took his three daughters – ages eight, nine and 11 – to the doctor after telling them they would be vaccinated against coronavirus.

Instead, the girls awoke from anaesthesia to find that their genitals had been removed.

The girls told their mother, who is divorced from the girls’ father, and she reported the incident to police. Police then arrested the father and the doctor, Mr el-Danbouki said.

The public prosecutor’s office in a statement last week accused the father and the doctor of carrying out the mutilations after a forensic analysis confirmed the practice had taken place.

Mr el-Danbouki said the doctor could face up to seven years in prison, while the father faces up to eight years.

Since the mid-1990s, Egypt has been battling the centuries-old practice of FGM, also known as female circumcision, which is misguidedly believed to control women’s sexuality.

In 2008, a law banning the removal of female genitalia was passed in Egypt’s parliament, despite strong opposition from conservative voices.

A 2015 government survey found that 87% of Egyptian women between the ages of 15 and 49 have been circumcised.

In 2016, Egyptian politicians adopted amendments to the law, elevating the charge against suspects from a misdemeanour — in which offenders typically received up to two years in prison — to a felony, which draws tougher sentences and punishments.

Despite the changes, reports of girls bleeding to death following the procedure have made headlines in the Arab World’s most populous country.

In January, a 12-year-old girl died in the southern province of Assiut after her parents brought her to a doctor who performed the procedure on her.

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Categories: Father, Female Genital Mutilation, FGM, girls, mr el-danbouki, News