Focus on Intolerance against Islam and its Sacred Symbols.

Intolerance against Islam and its Sacred Symbols

In United States: Islamophobes organized new Prophet Muhammad cartoon event — A group of anti-Muslim activists on 28 May in the State of Arizona organized a contest for cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad in the city of Phoenix. The 124 plan came just three weeks after two gunmen attacked a similar contest in Texas. The event was held in front of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, just after an anti-Islam rally.

US: Mystery letter to Civil Rights Group threatens eradication of Islam – Minnesota’s Council on American-Islamic Relations received a troubling missive in the mail on 10 September: an empty envelope completely covered with anti-Muslim threats. It was the latest in a steady trickle of hate mail, menacing calls, and death threats the civil rights organization had received since its founding, only standing out because of the strange intensity of its language. 

US: Viral video captures man tearing Koran at Ohio University – Wright State University had to respond after a videotaped expression of religious freedom went viral online. The video showed a man who was not enrolled at the university tearing up a Koran. As he screamed, “This is evil”, a growing crowd yelled back, “God is Love”. A Wright State spokesperson said the man was a student who traveled to campuses across the US to demonstrate. The incident happened on 15 September 2015. University President David Hopkins said in a statement released to 2 NEWS on 23 September: “An individual not associated with our university ventured onto our campus and expressed himself in ways that many found disrespectful to various groups because of their religion, sexual orientation, gender, or status as a victim of sexual assault. His actions, in my opinion, were vile 125 and disgusting. We all understand that public universities are places where a free exchange of ideas promotes the intellectual development of students and informs civic activity and policy beyond campus.” This was the second incident on Wright State’s campus in few months involving the issue of freedom of speech. 

US: Man sent notes threatening death to non-Muslims to Catholic Church— Cops arrested a 66-year-old man for leaving threatening notes at a Catholic church in the Bronx — one of which said “Koran tells Muslims to cut off the head and fingertips of disbelievers,” police sources said on 18 November. The letter found at St. Barnabas Church on East 241st Street in Woodlawn on Tuesday 17th November-also said, “Koran is the direct word of Allah to Mohammed via the Angel Gabriel.” It was the second hate note found at the church this week. Another folded missive was handed to Father Anthony Mizzi-Gili as he greeted parishioners outside the church, the sources said. It “referenced Mohammed and the slaying of unbelievers,” a source added. Basil Boland, of Yonkers, was then arrested around and charged with making terroristic threats and aggravated harassment.

United Kingdom: Thugs smash up home and destroy Koran in suspected race hate attack—Thugs had smashed up a home in a suspected racist attack in which a copy of the Koran was torn up. The house in East Belfast, was ransacked by two men who used knives to shred beds. They also destroyed furniture, stole documents and daubed the word ‘heiron' on a wall. One of the two Sudanese men who lived in the house came back and caught the pair in the act. He called a neighbor, a fellow Sudanese man, who managed to get pictures of the pair as they fled. But the attackers then came back with metal bars minutes later and attacked the men in a bid to get their phones and the pictures they had taken, it was claimed.