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, 30, who stabbed prayer leader in the neck at London mosque is jailed for seven years after asking to be sent to prison so he could learn the Quran ‘from start to finish,'” by Katie Feehan, Mailonline, December 14, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A knifeman who stabbed a 70-year-old Muslim prayer leader at one of Britain’s biggest mosques was jailed for more than seven years today.
Daniel Horton, 30, slashed muezzin Raafat Maglad in the neck at London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park, northwest London on February 20.
Muslim convert Horton, who had previously asked the judge to jail him so he could ‘learn the Koran by heart’ refused to leave his cell for his sentencing today.
Horrified worshippers rushed to pin down the attacker while Mr Maglad received first aid and an ambulance was called.
Others spilled into the street as the mosque was evacuated in the aftermath of the attack.
The father-of-three, who leads the call to prayer five times a day, returned to the mosque less than 24 hours after the attack following hospital treatment for a 1.5cm knife wound.
Speaking after the stabbing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the attack, echoing comments made by Mr Maglad himself.
Mr Maglad was a prayer caller at the funeral of Dodi Fayed, who was killed with Diana, Princess of Wales, in the 1997 Paris car crash.
He still suffers from pain and sickness and finds it difficult to ‘raise a spoon to his mouth’, Southwark Crown Court heard.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Maglad said he has had over ten medical appointments for the injuries to his arm and shoulder and was facing shoulder surgery.
The court heard Horton had a string of previous convictions, including two counts of assaulting a police officer and a separate conviction of wounding when he stabbed a friend….
Horton, of no fixed address, had attended the mosque over a number of years and was known to the victim.
On his arrest, he told officers that he didn’t intend to kill Mr Maglad but wanted to ‘send a message’ to him….
“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.”…
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