Incidents of “Islamophobia” are so thin on the ground in reality that they have to be invented. As you can see from the Huffington Post story from February, the media and the mosque leaders did their best to paint this incident as a manifestation of that phantom crime, but reality proved to be disturbingly intrusive.
“Muslim convert who stabbed prayer leader in neck in front of worshippers at London mosque asks to be sent to prison so he can learn Quran ‘from start to finish,'” by Lydia Catling, Mailonline, November 16, 2020:
A Muslim convert who stabbed a prayer leader in the neck in front of horrified worshippers in a London Mosque has asked for a prison sentence so he can learn the Quran ‘from start to finish.’
Daniel Horton, 30, has admitted stabbing Raafat Maglad, 70, as he held prayers at the London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park.
Islamic elder Mr Maglad is left unable to feed himself with his right arm alone and is scared to stand in front of his congregation for fear of a repeat attack, a court heard today.
Footage taken moments before the stabbing shows a man in a red hoodie kneeling on the floor and ‘praying strangely’ at the front of the beautiful prayer hall.
Police found a blood stained prayer mat at the mosque along with a knife on the carpet which Horton used to carry out the stabbing on February 20 this year.
Horton, of no fixed abode, was supposed to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court today.
But the ruling was delayed pending further clarification on psychological reports after Horton asked his lawyer to be sent to jail where he could learn the Quran and not a hospital order.
Mr Sam Blom-Cooper, in mitigation, said: ‘Mr Horton has been clear in the limited interactions I have had with him that he wants to be sentenced, that he wants to be punished for the harm that he has done.’
He added: ‘Mr Horton wants a prison sentence. He does not want a hospital order.
‘He wants to learn the Quran off by heart. He wants to learn the Quran from start to finish.’…
“London Mosque Attack Had ‘Been Brewing’, Say Leaders,” by Nadine White, Huffington Post, February 21, 2020:
Muslims in London felt a mosque attack had “been brewing” following incidents at places of worship around the world, community leaders have said.
Shaukat Warraich, director of public affairs at Muslim welfare charity the Al-Khoei Foundation, said worshippers are now “looking over their shoulders” as they come to prayer, with many women and children opting to stay at home rather than venture out to mosques after dark.
Warraich said he spoke to the London Central Mosque about their security measures only an hour before Thursday’s attack, in which a man knifed the muezzin, who makes the call to prayers.
Warraich said many Muslims had been on edge since the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand last March, when 51 people were killed and many others injured by a white supremacist.
He said: “Things have been brewing for some time now, since the Christchurch attacks (generally) the community has feared something like this….
Although the reasons for Thursday’s attack are not yet clear, Mr al-Khoei also suggested there is a rising trend in Islamophobia and condemned media coverage of attacks.
“The fear factor in the community has its roots in many incidents across the country and around the world where Islamophobia seems to be a current trend in people who think Muslims are fair game,” he said.
“People complain that Muslims have become easy targets for some sections of the media.
“Whenever there is an incident where a Muslim is involved it’s about Muslim terrorism. Most of the time when there’s an incident where Muslims are the victim it’s marketed as some lunatic or mad person.
“We need to have steps both to define what Islamophobia is and to counter it and to record it. Otherwise I fear that this cultural victimhood will keep growing.”
Al-Khoei said attackers of Muslims have “perverted the message of religion”.
He added: “To the wider community, it’s really important that no community feels targeted or marginalised or discriminated against.
“We are confident a democratic system can never allow the extremists to prevail and the Muslims of Europe this century not to become the Jews of Europe last century.”…