The Muslim population of Britain surpassed 3.5 million in 2016 to become around 5.5% of the overall population of 64 million,
according
to figures extrapolated from a recent study on the growth of the Muslim
population in Europe. In real terms, Britain has the third-largest
Muslim population in the European Union, after France, then Germany.
The growth of Britain's Muslim population can be attributed to immigration, high birth rates and
conversions to Islam.
Islam and Islam-related issues, omnipresent in Britain during 2016,
can be categorized into five broad themes: 1) Islamic extremism and the
security implications of British jihadists in Syria and Iraq; 2) the
continuing spread of Islamic Sharia law in Britain; 3) the sexual
exploitation of British children by Muslim gangs; 4) Muslim integration
into British society; and 5) the failures of British multiculturalism.
JANUARY 2016
January 3. A jihadist with a London accent
appeared
in an Islamic State propaganda video after the group executed five men
accused of spying for the UK. The masked gunman warned Prime Minister
David Cameron that the West could never defeat the Islamic State. The
video also showed a young boy, aged around four and with a British
accent, threatening to kill non-Muslims.
January 4. British officials
traveled
to Sudan to stanch the flow of UK-born medics joining the Islamic
State. More than a dozen British doctors studying at Sudan's University
of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) have joined the Islamic State
to treat jihadists in Syria. Parents said they had sent their children
to study in Sudan to reconnect them with their African and Islamic roots
before returning to practice medicine in Britain.
January 4. The Jamiatul Ummah School in Tower Hamlets, East London,
failed an inspection when investigators from Ofsted, the official agency that regulates British schools,
found extremist material in its library, including books that call for stoning women.
January 5. Pastor James McConnell, a 78-year-old pastor from Belfast, was
cleared
of charges that he violated the Communications Act 2003 when, in a
sermon broadcast on the internet, he described Islam as "heathen,"
"Satanic" and "a doctrine spawned in hell." Judge Liam McNally said:
"The courts need to be very careful not to criticize speech which,
however contemptible, is no more than offensive. It is not the task of
the criminal law to censor offensive utterances."
January 6. A man and a woman were
arrested
on suspicion of terrorism after attempting to board a UK-bound flight
with fake Belgian passports. The pair, understood to be brother and
sister, were arrested at Cristoforo Colombo Airport in Genoa, Italy,
while trying to board the flight. Fears were raised that the pair, who
claimed to be Syrian refugees, might be jihadis after police found
violent images on their smartphones.
January 6. A House of Commons briefing paper on polygamy
revealed
that recent reforms to the social security system would allow migrants
in polygamous marriages to claim additional benefits payments. Although
polygamy is illegal in Britain, some 300,000 people are
believed to be living in such unions in the country.
January 6. The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which
represents examination boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
reached
an agreement with Muslim groups to reschedule crucial exams during the
next three years to avoid clashing with Ramadan, when observant Muslim
pupils would be expected to fast.
January 8. A Muslim woman who claimed she was assaulted in downtown
Birmingham for wearing a hijab days after the Paris attacks was
fined after video footage proved she fabricated her story.
January 8. Islamic extremists were
allowed
to tour British universities unchallenged, even though universities and
colleges are legally required to prevent extremists radicalizing
students on campus, according to the
Daily Mail.
January 9. The Criminal Cases Review Commission, an official government body, was
found
to be helping asylum seekers overturn their convictions for illegal
entry to Britain in order to allow them to receive refugee status and
remain in the UK. MPs said the practice could "undermine deterrence" and
lead to thousands more illegal arrivals.
January 15. London Police
released video footage of a hijab-clad woman who tried to stab a 15-year-old boy on a bus in Lambeth.
January 16. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond
revealed
that some 1,500 Britons tried to join the Islamic State since 2012. An
estimated 800 people, mostly jihadists and family members, successfully
entered Syria; roughly half are still there. Another 600 were stopped,
either as they tried to leave Britain, or after arriving in Turkey.
January 18. Prime Minister David Cameron
announced
a plan to invest £20 million (€33 million; $28 million) in English
classes for Muslim women to reduce the risk of extremism. He said
migrants to Britain who cannot pass an English test within 2-1/2 years
of arriving may not be allowed to stay. British Muslim groups accused
Cameron of demonizing their communities.
January 19. Muhammad Shamsuddin, a 39-year-old London-based Islamist, was
featured
in a new documentary called "The Jihadis Next Door." Shamsuddin, a
divorced father of five who lives on state handouts and claims he cannot
work because he has "chronic fatigue syndrome," was
filmed preaching hate against non-Muslims on British streets.
Muhammad
Shamsuddin, a 39-year-old London-based Islamist, was featured in a
documentary called "The Jihadis Next Door." Shamsuddin, a divorced
father of five who lives on state handouts and claims he cannot work
because he has "chronic fatigue syndrome," was filmed preaching hate
against non-Muslims on British streets. (Image source: Channel 4 video
screenshot)
|
January 19. The government
launched a new website, "Educate against Hate," aimed at helping schools and parents to tackle the "spell of twisted ideologies."
January 22. The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres,
called on British clergymen to grow beards to reach out to Muslims in their areas.
January 24. Behar Kasemi, a 42-year-old refugee from Kosovo, was
jailed
for four weeks after he threatened to cut out his wife's heart because
she had become "too English." He told police: "In my country it is for
the women to obey their husbands and look after the children."
January 25. One in five prisoners in Britain's top-security prisons
are
Muslim. The eight Category A prisons contain 5,885 highly dangerous
inmates and 1,229 — 20.8% — are Muslim. By comparison, 5.5% of the
overall UK population is Muslim.
January 25. The Royal Air Force
foiled
a jihadist plot by two commercial airline pilots to bomb four British
cities. The pilots, who were leaving Amsterdam's Schiphol airport for a
Middle Eastern country, were heard discussing attacks on London, Bath,
Brighton and Ipswich. They were using the emergency "Mayday" channel in
the belief they were not being monitored.
January 29. A judge in New York
sentenced
Mahdi Hashi, a 26-year-old Somali-born British citizen, to nine years
in prison for joining al-Shabaab, a jihadist group based in East Africa.
Hashi, who grew up in London, first came to Britain as a six-year-old
when his family fled the civil war in Somalia. His British citizenship
was revoked in July 2012 due to his "extremist activities." He was later
deported to the United States.
January 29. Ibrahim Anderson, 38, a convert to Islam, and Shah Jahan Khan, 63, were
sentenced to a total of five years in prison for promoting the Islamic State on London's Oxford Street.
January 30. Three Somalis who gang-raped a 16-year-old girl after luring her into a hotel bathroom in Manchester were
sentenced to a total of 29 years in prison. The men, who showed no remorse for their actions, were
said to be living according to the laws of Somalia, not Britain.
FEBRUARY 2016
February 8. In a speech on prison reform, David Cameron
said
the government is considering placing all convicted Islamist terrorist
prisoners in England and Wales in a single secure unit in order to
prevent them from recruiting other prisoners.
February 16. A man in Scotland was
arrested
for posting a series of "offensive comments" about Syria refugees on
Facebook. Twelve Syrian families arrived on the remote Scottish island
of Bute as part of the Home Office's Syrian Vulnerable Person
Resettlement program.
February 16. Shabir Ahmed, the 63-year-old leader of a Rochdale child sex grooming gang,
cited
human rights laws as he launched an appeal against deportation from
Britain. Ahmed —described by a judge as a "violent hypocritical bully" —
wrote to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) claiming that his
convictions for child sex offenses were a conspiracy to "scapegoat"
Muslims.
February 17. At least 21 illegal Islamic schools were
placed
under investigation over fears of radicalization. Inspectors from
Ofsted, the school's regulator, found that the institutions were
teaching "hate-filled, misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic
material."
February 28. Sharia courts administering Islamic justice in Britain
are run by clerics who believe some offenders should have their hands
chopped off,
according
to Muslim scholar Elham Manea. She said that some clerics also believe
girls can be married at the age of 12. She described the prevailing
attitude as "totalitarian" and as more backward than some parts of
Pakistan.
February 29. Girls in Britain as young as 11 are being
forced
into marriage via the internet while others are being secretly wed over
the phone. Imams in Britain and abroad have been conducting ceremonies
using Skype to marry British girls remotely to men abroad. The new
husband is often promised that he will get a visa to come to Britain.
MARCH 2016
March 4. Ali Abdullahi, a 34-year-old migrant from Somalia who
sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at a train station in Torquay,
told the Exeter Crown Court that the crime was a misunderstanding caused by "cultural differences."
March 9. London is more "Islamic" than much of the Muslim world,
according
to Maulana Syed Ali Raza Rizvi, a prominent Shia cleric who was born in
Pakistan. "I feel that London has more Islamic values than many of the
Muslim countries put together," he said.
March 9. An eight-year-old girl was
taken
into protective custody after a man and a woman were arrested at
Heathrow Airport in connection with alleged female genital mutilation
offenses. The girl was believed to have been taken Somalia to carry out
FGM overseas.
March 11. Staff at a nursery in Luton
referred
a four-year-old boy to a de-radicalization program after the child drew
an image of a man with a large chopping knife. Teachers said they
believed he was saying "cooker bomb" instead of "cucumber."
March 15. The Islamic Society at the London School of Economics
held a gala dinner where men and women were segregated by a seven-foot screen so that attendees could not look at one another.
March 15. The Muslim Women's Council in Bradford
announced plans to build Britain's first female-led mosque.
March 16. The High Court
ruled
that an 18-year-old girl who was born and raised in London and who ran
away from home because her parents "were not strict enough Muslims"
should be provided with government housing and a wide range of financial
assistance until she turns 21.
March 17. A family court in London
ruled
that four children must be immunized after their Muslim mother refused
consent because she said the vaccines contained pork gelatin.
March 20: A total of 3,955 people were
referred to the Channel program, the British government's de-radicalization scheme, in 2015, nearly triple the figure (1,681) in 2014.
March 28. Teaching children fundamental British values is an act of "cultural supremacism,"
according to the National Union of Teachers (NUT), which wants to replace the concept with one that includes "international rights."
March 31. The Islamic Tarbiyah Academy, a private Muslim school in Yorkshire, was
accused
of promoting Islamic extremism. The founder of the school, Mufti Zubair
Dudha, belongs to the orthodox Deobandi sect, which is thought to
control half of all mosques and madrasas in the UK. Dudha has warned
Muslims not to adopt British customs, and told them they should be
prepared to "expend ... even life" to create a world organized
"according to Allah's just order."
APRIL 2016
April 1. The first gym in Wales exclusively for Muslim women
opened in Cardiff.
April 3. About 1,000 Muslim prisoners are at risk of being radicalized in British jails as part of "terrorist academies,"
according to Lord Falconer, the shadow justice secretary.
April 4. Muslim extremists have turned part of the Gartree prison into a "no-go zone,"
according to prison union leaders. They believe an entire block of the facility is being run under Sharia law.
April 13. A new study showed that a significant part of the British
Muslim community is becoming a separate "nation within a nation." The
615-page survey
found
that more than 100,000 British Muslims sympathize with suicide bombers.
Only one in three British Muslims (34%) would contact the police if
they believed that somebody close to them had become involved with
jihadists. In addition, 23% of British Muslims said Islamic Sharia law
should replace British law in areas with large Muslim populations.
April 18. Muslim preachers approved by the government are routinely
distributing extremist literature in British prisons leaving hundreds of
inmates at risk of radicalization,
according to a leaked report.
April 22. Tarik Hassane and Suhaib Majeed, a pair of home-grown
terrorists, were given life sentences for plotting to kill soldiers,
police officers and civilians in a series of Islamic-State-inspired
drive-by shootings. The judge
said:
"It is shocking, tragic and deplorable that you, two young British men,
educated through the UK school system, undertaking university courses,
should be so influenced by the bloodthirsty version of Islam presented
by ISIS and other similarly minded groups."
MAY 2016
May 1. Mubashir Jamil, a 21-year-old man from Luton, was
arrested on suspicion of attempting to travel to Syria to engage in "violent jihad" with the Islamic State.
May 2. A senior British jihadi who boasted of recruiting hundreds of Britons for the Islamic State was
killed
in a drone strike in Syria. Raphael Hostey, also known as Abu Qaqa
al-Britani, left Manchester to join the Islamic State in 2013. The
23-year-old graphic designer became a key recruiter of British fighters
and jihadi brides for the group.
May 4. The "Department of Theology" of the Blackburn Muslim Association
ruled
that it is "not permissible" for a woman to travel more than 48 miles —
deemed to be the equivalent of three days walk — without her husband or
a close male relative. The group also ruled that men must grow beards
and women must cover their faces. The rulings were accompanied by the
catchphrase: "Allah knows best."
May 7. Labour Party politician Sadiq Khan was
sworn in
as mayor of London. He is the first Muslim to lead a major European
capital. During the election campaign, Khan faced a stream of
allegations about his past dealings with Muslim extremists and
anti-Semites. British politician Paul Weston
warned that Khan's rise is a harbinger of things to come:
"The previously unthinkable has become the present
reality. A Muslim man with way too many extremist links to be entirely
coincidental is now the Mayor of London. In a couple more decades
Britain may well have its first Muslim Prime Minister. Reality cannot
argue with demographics, so the realistic future for Britain is
Islamic."
May 7. Mohammed Shaheen, a 43-year-old father of seven, was
sentenced
to 16 years in prison for raping underage schoolgirls. Shaheen, an
immigrant from Pakistan, insisted he was a devout Muslim who had been
framed by his victims.
May 8. Britain's biggest Muslim charity
branded
hundreds of buses around the country with an Arabic slogan proclaiming
"glory to Allah." Islamic Relief said the initiative was an attempt to
"break down barriers" during Ramadan and portray Islam in a positive
light.
May 8. Six Algerian terror suspects with links to al-Qaeda were
allowed
to stay in Britain after winning a protracted legal battle. The
government ruled that there was a "real risk" the men would be tortured
by the Algerian security services if they were deported. This would have
violated the Human Rights Act.
May 9. A Muslim man who was found guilty of threatening to
behead
a candidate of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) had his
sentence overturned on appeal. Aftab Ahmed, 45, had been found guilty of
making threats to kill David Robinson-Young, but a Newcastle Crown
Court judge said he believed that Ahmed did not intend to act on his
threat.
May 10. The Greater Manchester Police (GMP)
apologized
for a counter-terrorism exercise in which a mock suicide bomber shouted
"Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest"). Eight hundred volunteers took
part in the drill to make it as realistic as possible. A local Muslim
leader, Syed Azhar Shah, said it was "shocking to portray Muslims as
terrorists" and accused the GMP of "institutional racism."
May 10. The trial began of three Muslims who plotted to
behead British citizens after being inspired by an Islamic State order "to kill civilians everywhere in the West."
May 11. Prime Minister David Cameron
apologized
to Suliman Gani, a Muslim extremist, for saying he is a supporter of
the Islamic State. Cameron said he was referring to reports that Gani
supports "an" Islamic state rather than "the" Islamic State. The Muslim
Council of Britain called for an "urgent review" of Islamophobia in the
Conservative party.
May 15. The BBC's religious output is too Christian,
according
to Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC's head of religion and ethics. He argued that
that Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths should get more airtime.
May 16. The government
confirmed
that Sharia-compliant student loans will be offered for the first time
in Britain as part of an effort to boost the number of young Muslims
applying to university. The new finance model complies with Sharia law,
which forbids Muslims from taking out loans on which they would be
charged interest.
May 17. One-third of Muslim adults in Britain do not feel "part of British culture,"
according
to a new report on British multiculturalism. Nearly half (47%) of
Muslims consider their Islamic faith to be the most important part of
their identity.
May 17. Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in London, has become "like a jihadi training camp,"
according
to testimony from a former inmate. "The problem is that Belmarsh is
also a holding prison and so young people who are brainwashed and
indoctrinated then go out into the wider prison system and create wider
Akhi [brotherhood] networks." Muslims comprise 30% of inmates at
Belmarsh.
May 17. Brusthom Ziamani, a 20-year-old Muslim convert who was
arrested in East London for plotting to behead a British soldier, had
his sentence
reduced. Judges reviewing his case said that "given his youth" his sentence was "too long."
May 18. Ofsted, the government agency responsible for regulating British schools,
admitted
that it failed properly to inspect the Zakaria Muslim Girls' High
School in Batley because the inspector was "prohibited" from talking to
pupils or staff. The school is run by the Deobandis, a conservative
Muslim sect that is said to shun non-Muslims.
May 18. The Queen's Speech, setting out the government's program for the next session of parliament,
unveiled
a controversial new counter-extremism bill that included powers to gag
individuals and ban organizations deemed as extremist. The bill did not,
however, include a definition of extremism. Critics
said the proposals risked creating "thought police."
May 18. Akmal Afzal, a 23-year-old Briton of Pakistani descent who
was arrested at the 2012 London Olympics after giving police a false
name,
filed a lawsuit for discrimination. He claims he was arrested because he was an "Asian man with a beard."
May 22. The government was
accused
of burying a report on prison extremism. The report warned that staff
have been reluctant to tackle Islamist behavior for fear of being
labelled "racist."
May 23. El Shafee Elsheikh, 27, was
identified
as the fourth member of the Islamic State execution cell responsible
for beheading 27 hostages. The four guards, led by "Jihadi John," were
nicknamed the "Beatles" because of their English accents. Elsheikh, who
was granted asylum in Britain when he was seven, left for Syria after
being radicalized at a London mosque.
May 23. A British Muslim woman was
jailed
after she tried to take her children to Syria. Lorna Moore, 34, failed
to tell police that her husband was a jihadist with the Islamic State.
She was planning to take her three young children, one of them 11 months
old, to the war zone.
May 23. A survey conducted by ComRes on behalf of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK
found
that 33% of British adults believe that Islam promotes violence in the
UK. The study also found that 56% of Britons disagree with the view that
Islam is compatible with British values.
May 24. A National Health Service (NHS) doctor
left
his wife and two children in Sheffield to join the Islamic State. Issam
Abuanza, 37, a Palestinian doctor with British citizenship, was the
first practicing NHS doctor known to have joined the Islamic State.
May 25. Police in West Yorkshire
revealed
that they were investigating 220 alleged cases of child sex grooming in
Keighley and Bradford. The cases involve 261 suspects and 188 victims.
May 26. Home Secretary Theresa May
established
an independent review into the "misuse" of Sharia law in Britain. The
review will not, however, examine whether Sharia law discriminates
against women.
May 27. A British citizen who plotted to carry out a suicide bomb attack at Heathrow Airport was
sentenced
to 40 years in prison. Minh Quang Pham, 33, was sentenced in New York
for travelling to Yemen to train with members of al-Qaeda. Pham, a
Vietnamese born British convert to Islam, was extradited to the United
States in February 2015.
May 29. Music festivals, sports venues and nightclubs were
placed
on "high alert" for potential jihadist attacks. Neil Basu of the
Metropolitan Police warned: "These people are perfectly happy to target
civilians with the maximum terror impact. Crowded places were always a
concern for us, but now they are right at the top of the agenda."
May 31. The trial began of Somalia-born Muhiddin Mire, 30, who tried to
decapitate
a random stranger in the London Underground. "This is for my Syrian
brothers," he yelled. "I am going to spill your blood." Police found
images on Mire's cellphone of Islamic State hostages having their
throats cut.
JUNE 2016
June 2. Aaqil Ahmed, the head of religion and ethics at the BBC,
said
Britons should admit the "uncomfortable" truth that Islamic State is
made up of Muslims and their doctrine is Islamic: "I hear so many people
say ISIS has nothing to do with Islam — of course it has. They are not
preaching Judaism."
June 2. A manual used by imams to teach prison inmates about Islam risks "turning people into jihadis," Sheikh Musa Admani
told the BBC. A section of the program on jihad said that taking up arms to fight "evil" is "one of the noblest acts."
June 27. An article in the
Economist magazine
argued
that some forms of female genital mutilation (FGM) should be allowed
because "minor" forms of the practice might prevent girls from more
extreme harm.
June 27. Shakeel Begg of the Lewisham Islamic Centre
sued
the BBC for libel over a broadcast which implied that he was a member
of a "rogue's gallery of extremists." A lawyer for the BBC
responded:
"The basis for calling the claimant an extremist is short and simple.
He has preached jihad as the greatest of deeds which in this context
clearly means violence in the name of Islam."
JULY 2016
July 1. A Muslim taxi driver in Leicester
refused
to pick up a blind couple because they had a guide dog. "Me, I not take
the dog," the driver said. "For me, it's about my religion."
July 1. A judge in London
ordered
the deportation of Saliman Barci, a 41-year-old Albanian man who posed
as a refugee from Kosovo and collected the full range of welfare
payments in Britain for 14 years. It was discovered that in 2009, a
court in Albania sentenced Barci in absentia to 25 years in prison for
murdering two people.
July 2. Dahir Ibrahim, a 31-year-old Somali migrant, was
sentenced
to ten years in prison for raping two women in Birmingham. He had
previously been sentenced to ten years in 2005 for raping a woman in
Edgbaston. A judge had ordered his deportation after he served his first
sentence, but he appealed and was allowed to remain in Britain.
Ibrahim's attorney, Jabeen Akhtar, successfully argued that he had a
lack of understanding of what is acceptable in the United Kingdom.
July 3. Azad Chaiwala, a Muslim entrepreneur in Manchester,
launched a campaign to "remove the taboo" behind polygamy, illegal in Britain, by starting two polygamy matchmaking sites.
July 4. A Muslim man was
ordered
to bring his nine-year-old daughter back to Britain after taking her to
Algeria and leaving her there with his relatives. The man said he did
not approve of his estranged wife's new partner, a Christian.
July 5. The Labour Party
reinstated
Naz Shah, a Muslim MP from Bradford who was suspended over anti-Semitic
Facebook posts that called on Israelis be deported to the United
States.
July 6. Abdelhadi Ahmed, 39,
appeared
at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on charges of forcing his wife to wear
a headscarf outside her bedroom, banning her from speaking to other men
and beating her.
July 7. Sana Khan, 24, who plotted a jihadist attack on a shopping center in Westfield had her sentence
reduced for "good behavior."
July 8. Mohammed Habibullah, a 69-year-old imam who leads prayers at a mosque in Dudley, was
given
a suspended sentence after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a
woman. In determining the sentence, Judge Amjad Nawaz, a fellow Muslim,
said that Habibullah was a man of "positive good character."
July 8. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of the school inspection service Ofsted,
warned
that the "Trojan Horse" campaign to impose radical Islamic ideas on
Birmingham schools has "gone underground." He warned that Birmingham was
failing to ensure that "children are not being exposed to harm,
exploitation or the risk of falling under the influence of extremist
views."
July 10. More than 1,500 children — including 257 under the age of 10 — were
referred to the Channel program, the government's deradicalization scheme, during the first six months of 2015.
July 11. A Pew Research Center survey
found
that more than half (52%) of Britons surveyed said they believe that
incoming refugees and migrants will increase the threat of terrorism in
the UK. More than half (54%) of Britons also said that Muslims in the UK
"want to be distinct from the larger society." Nearly half (46%) said
that migrants are an economic burden on the UK.
July 12. Residents in Manchester
received
leaflets in their mail boxes calling for a public ban on dogs. The
leaflets, distributed by a group called "Public Purity," stated: "This
area is home to a large Muslim community. Please have respect for us and
for our children and limit the presence of dogs in the public sphere.
As citizens of a multicultural nation, those who live in the UK must
learn to understand and respect the legacy and lifestyle of Muslims who
live alongside them."
July 12. Gavin Rae, 36, a former soldier with the British Army and a convert to Islam, was
sentenced to 18 years in prison for trying to buy weapons for the Islamic State.
July 13. Ian Acheson, the head of a review into extremism in British prisons,
warned
that there is a hardcore group of jihadi prisoners whose "proselytizing
behavior" among the Muslim inmates in England and Wales is so dangerous
that they should be separated from the rest of the prison population.
July 18. Kelvin Mackenzie, a columnist for
The Sun,
wrote
that Fatima Manji, a presenter for Channel 4 television, should not
have been allowed to anchor new reports on the jihadist attack in Nice,
France, because she is a Muslim and wears the hijab. The Independent
Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), the press regulator, said it had
received more than 300 complaints about Mackenzie's column.
July 18. The Independent Press Standards Organisation, the press regulator,
ruled that the
Mail Online
was wrong to use the words "Islamic honor killing" in a headline
because it wrongly suggested that the crime had been motivated by Islam.
July 20. Abdi Waise, 28, an illegal immigrant from Somalia, was
sentenced
to 12 years in prison for kidnapping a schoolgirl and attempting to
abduct four others aged between 11 and 14 in North London over the space
of two-and-half hours. The crimes occurred just three weeks after Waise
was released early from an eight-year prison sentence for rape. He was
not deported because, according to the British government, Somalia is
too dangerous.
July 21. The government
reported
5,700 new cases of female genital mutilation in England between April
2015 and March 2016. The statistics, the first to be published since the
government introduced compulsory reporting for public hospitals. The
most frequent age at which FGM was carried out was between five and
nine. More than half of all cases relate to women and girls from London.
July 23. The Home Office
confirmed
that 550,000 teachers, nurses, child care providers and other public
sector workers have been trained in the Prevent strategy, a
counter-terrorism training program, to help them spot and report
potential extremists in their workplaces.
July 25. Syrian refugees sent to the remote Scottish island of Bute
complained
that the area is "full of old people waiting to die" and they would
rather be in Glasgow or Manchester "where there are more Arabic people."
July 26. The makers of Fireman Sam, an animated television series for children,
apologized
after an episode which allegedly showed a character stepping on a page
of the Koran. Muslim viewers claimed the episode "Troubled Waters" was
Islamophobic because it showed a bumbling character named Elvis failing
to respect the Muslim holy book.
July 26. The Home Office
announced
a £2.4 million ($3.2 million) "Hate Crime Action Fund" to "provide
security measures and equipment for vulnerable places of worship that
need increased protection." The plan promises extra data collection and
training to identify "anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist and
other bullying in schools."
July 26. Two men of "Middle Eastern appearance" tried to
abduct
a serviceman at knifepoint at RAF Marham in Norfolk. The serviceman
managed to fight off his attackers. Air Force personnel were warned to
"keep a low profile" and told not wear their uniforms in public.
July 28. The BBC
reported
that five books regarded as "extremist" remained in jails in England
and Wales after a review called for their removal. The banned titles
were
The Way of Jihad by Hassan Al-Banna;
Milestones by Sayyid Qutb;
The Lawful and Prohibited in Islam by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi;
Towards Understanding Islam by Syed Abul Ala Maududi; and
Fundamentals of Tauheed by Bilal Philips.
July 29. A Muslim street preacher in Birmingham was
charged
with public order offenses after he tried to enforce Sharia law on
female passersby. Krissoni Henderson, 31, was arrested for allegedly
shouting verbal abuse at a 38-year-old woman "for wearing tight jeans."
AUGUST 2016
August 1. Nearly 900 Syrians in Britain were arrested in 2015 for crimes including rape and child abuse, police statistics
revealed. The British government has
pledged
to resettle up to 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by the end of 2020.
"The government seems not to have vetted those it has invited into the
country,"
said MEP Ray Finch.
August 1. Male refugees settling in Britain must receive formal
training on how to treat women, a senior Labour MP said. Thangam
Debbonaire, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees,
called
for a "refugee integration strategy" so that men "understand what is
expected of them." She said it could help prevent sexual harassment and
issues "including genital mutilation."
August 3. Zakaria Bulhan, a 19-year-old Norwegian man of Somali descent,
stabbed
to death an American woman in London's Russell Square. He also wounded
five others. Police said Bulhan was mentally ill, but HeatStreet, a news
and opinion website,
revealed that he had uploaded books advocating violent jihad on social media sites.
August 4. A public swimming pool in Luton
announced
gender-segregated sessions for "cultural reasons." The
gender-segregated sessions are named 'Alhamdulillahswimming,' an Arabic
phrase which means "Praise be to Allah."
August 5. Egyptian members of the Muslim Brotherhood may be allowed to seek asylum in Britain,
according to new guidance from the Home Office. The new guidance contradicted previous government policy, which
stated
that Britain would "refuse visas to members and associates of the
Muslim Brotherhood who are on record as having made extremist comments."
August 5. Stephen Bennett, a 39-year-old father of seven from Manchester, was
sentenced
to 180 hours of community service for posting "grossly offensive"
anti-Muslim comments on Facebook. One of the offending comments: "Don't
come over to this country and treat it like your own. Britain first." He
was arrested under the Malicious Communications Act.
August 9. Tanveer Ahmed, a 32-year-old taxi driver from Bradford, was
sentenced
to 27 years in prison for the "barbaric, premeditated" murder of a
shopkeeper in Glasgow. Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim, admitted to repeatedly
stabbing Asad Shah to death outside his shop in March 2016 in a
sectarian attack motivated by hatred of Shah's religious views. Shah
belonged to the Ahmadi branch of Islam, which believes Mohammed was not
the final Muslim prophet.
August 11. Kadiza Sultana, one of three British schoolgirls who left their homes in east London to join the Islamic State, was
killed by a Russian airstrike in Raqqa, Syria.
August 11. Muslim women are the most economically disadvantaged group in British society,
according
to a report by the House of Commons. The report also found that jobless
rates in the Muslim community run at more than double the rate of the
general population.
August 12. Voter fraud has been deliberately overlooked in Muslim communities because of "political correctness,"
according
to a government report. The investigation began after a scandal in
Tower Hamlets, London, where Mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed and his
election declared void after he was found by a court to have committed
electoral fraud, including vote-rigging.
August 13. British schoolchildren should be required to make a
regular US-style pledge of allegiance to the British flag, according to
Khalil Yousuf, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. He
said:
"Not only should we raise the flag, but everybody in the Muslim
community should have to pledge loyalty to Britain in schools. There is
no conflict between being a Muslim and a Briton."
August 14. London Police
announced
a £1.7 million "Online Hate Crime Hub" to investigate offensive
comments on Facebook and Twitter. The so-called Twitter Squad, created
by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, will identify online abuse and report it to
the appropriate police force. Civil liberties groups worry the new unit
could stop people expressing opinions for fear of arrest.
August 20. A British asylum judge
revealed
that only a tiny proportion — between five and ten percent — of the
people whose asylum applications are denied are actually deported.
August 22. The Justice Ministry
announced measures to combat Islamic extremism in British prisons. The move came after an official inquiry
concluded that inmates acting as "self-styled emirs" were exerting a "radicalizing influence" over fellow Muslims.
August 23. Scottish Police
announced
that the hijab will become an optional part of its uniform. The move
was aimed at encouraging more Muslim women to join the force.
August 24. Michael Coe, a 35-year-old convert to Islam and a close associate of Anjem Choudary, was
found guilty
of assault and battery after knocking a 16-year-old boy unconscious in
East London because he was hugging a girl. Coe, also known as Mikaeel
Ibrahim, left the boy unconscious and bleeding after kicking his head.
August 26. The BBC
reported
that the number of minors detained under the Terrorism Act more than
tripled over two years. Forty-six were detained in 2015, compared to 13
in 2013, with the youngest aged only 13. The threefold rise is believed
to be the result of police stopping unaccompanied minors on outbound
flights to Syria.
August 27. A close associate of Anjem Choudary ran a series of front companies that
received
more than £1 million of taxpayers' money to run computer training
courses in libraries and job centers. That money was then transferred to
key members of Choudary's banned Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun (ALM).
Even after the government learned about the associate's links to
Choudary, it continued to grant him money for another four years.
August 27. Police in Telford — dubbed the child sex capital of Britain — were
accused of covering up allegations that hundreds of children in the town were sexually exploited by Pakistani sex gangs.
August 31. A YouGov poll
found
that a majority of Britons favor a burka ban: 57% support a ban; 25%
are opposed. The only age group to oppose a ban was 18-24 year-olds; by
contrast, the 65+ group supported a ban 78% to 12%.
August 31. National Churchwatch, a multi-faith organization dedicated to reducing crime in places of worship,
issued
a security warning for British churches after jihadists murdered a
Catholic priest in France. The group sent a 12-page security guidance —
Counter Terrorism Advice for Churches — to every church in Britain.
SEPTEMBER 2016
September 2. An official list of the most popular baby names in England and Wales in 2015
showed
the top name as Oliver. The list shows Muhammad at number 12, followed
by Mohammed at 29, Mohammad at 68 and Muhammed coming in at 121. When
the different spellings of Mohammed are
combined, however, the name was used 7,570 times, outstripping the 6,941 babies named Oliver on their birth certificates.
September 2. Ayasofia Primary School, a Muslim school in Whitechapel, East London, was
shut down by Ofsted, the agency that regulates schools, after four inspections uncovered a raft of educational failings.
September 4. Peter Sutcliffe, a serial killer known as the Yorkshire
Ripper, was "preparing to convert to Islam" in a bid to protect himself
as part of Muslim prison gang,
according
to media reports. Sutcliffe, 70, was moved from the Broadmoor
psychiatric hospital to Frankland prison after a tribunal found he no
longer required medical treatment. Sutcliffe, who was convicted in 1981
of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more, has faced daily
death threats since arriving at the prison. Muslim gang members offered
to protect him, but only if he converts to Islam.
September 6. Anjem Choudary, 49, one of the most notorious Islamists in Britain, and a top associate, Mohammed Rahman, 33, were
sentenced
to five-and-a-half years in prison for inviting support for a
proscribed terrorist organization, namely the Islamic State. Choudary, a
lawyer by training, had for years managed to avoid prison by treading
the fine legal line between the inflammatory rhetoric of Islamic
supremacism and the right to free speech. The judge said he crossed the
line by pledging an "oath of allegiance" to the Islamic State.
September 7. The government should impose financial restrictions on Islamists in order to control how they spend their money,
according
to Tom Keating, an expert in financial crime. The recommendation came
after a judge revealed that Anjem Choudary had obtained £500,000
(€550,000; $610,000) in welfare benefits.
September 7. The BBC
reported
a sharp increase in the number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum
in Britain. The number of asylum seeking children in the care of English
councils rose 62% in a year. The largest group are boys aged 16 and 17,
coming from countries such as Afghanistan or Eritrea.
September 8. Haroon Ali-Syed, 19, of Hounslow, West London, was
arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out a mass-casualty terror attack on key London landmarks, including Buckingham Palace.
September 9. Four members of an alleged Muslim terror gang
appeared
at Westminster Magistrates Court on charges of intending to commit a
terrorist act in Britain. Police searching a car linked to the group
found a meat cleaver with the word "kaffir" (unbeliever) carved on the
handle. They also recovered guns and bullets in a bag found in the car.
September 9. David Thompson, the head of West Midlands Police, one of the largest police forces in Britain,
said he would consider allowing Muslim officers to wear the burka while on duty in a bid to boost diversity.
September 11. A former counterterrorism sergeant
accused
London's Metropolitan Police of failing to tackle extremist views among
some of its Muslim officers because of a fear of being labelled
"Islamophobic."
September 12. Ofcom, the media regulator,
said
it would not investigate complaints over an episode of the children's
program Fireman Sam, which Muslims said showed one of Sam's mates
trampling on a page of the Koran. Ofcom, which received 170 complaints,
said it could not confirm the page was from the Islamic holy book.
September 14. A woman who teaches English to migrants with refugee status
said
her students are not interested in learning the language or getting a
job, but rather in the benefits they can extract from British taxpayers.
September 15. The British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Simon Collis,
completed
the Hajj after converting to Islam. He is believed to be the first
British ambassador to perform the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of
Islam.
September 16. Britain will
receive around 43,381 asylum applications in 2016, costing over £620 million,
according to projections by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
September 16. The
Guardian reported
that young Muslims living in Rochdale are increasingly turning to
anti-Western sentiment and extreme interpretations of Islam. Muslim
leaders interviewed by the paper described a "disturbing trend" of young
Muslims adopting more fundamentalist beliefs on key social and
political issues than their parents or grandparents.
September 17. Islamic State supporter Mohammed Syeedy, 21, was
sentenced
to life in prison for the murder of Jalal Uddin, a 71-year-old imam at
the Jalalia Jame mosque in Rochdale. Manchester Crown Court heard how
Syeedy developed "a hatred" of Uddin for practicing Ruqya, a form of
religious healing which involves the use of amulets and considered by
the Islamic State to be punishable by death.
September 21. Alex Younger, the head of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence agency,
warned
that globalization, the information revolution, a deepening sectarian
divide in the Middle East and failed states would ensure that Islamist
terrorism remained a threat to the West for years to come.
September 28. Noor Walile, a 38-year-old imam at Rugby Mosque, Warwickshire, was
sentenced to six years in prison for raping a boy in a toilet in between a lesson he was giving at the mosque.
September 28. Home Office statistics released to the
Daily Express under Freedom of Information laws
revealed
that 12,000 migrants seeking asylum in the UK are missing. The data
showed that of the 77,440 asylum cases in progress, one in six skipped
their first interview with immigration officers and vanished.
September 28. A government report
found that Muslims are the least likely of all faith groups in Wales to be employed. The report, "
Creating a Faith-Friendly Workplace for Muslims,"
encouraged employers to adopt Sharia standards — providing prayer
rooms, having flextime to enable staff to leave early for Friday
prayers, and serving halal or vegetarian food in canteens — to attract
Muslim staff.
September 28. The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales,
opened
an inquiry into the Stockwell Green Mosque for distributing literature
that calls on members of the Ahmadi community to be killed. The leaflets
demanded that Ahmadis should convert to mainstream Islam or face "a
capital sentence."
OCTOBER 2016
October 2. The
Daily Mail reported
that dozens of Islamic schools continue to operate despite inspectors
finding that pupils are unsafe, exposed to extreme views or unaware of
basic British values. The findings suggested that a government crackdown
on extremism in schools has been ineffective.
October 5. Manchester Crown Court
sentenced
Imran Khan, 38, to life in prison for murdering his wife. He admitted
to stabbing her in the presence of their five children because it was
"not halal" for her to be working with other men.
October 7. Police
launched
a hate crime probe after literature saying those who insult Islam "must
be killed" was allegedly handed out at a mosque in Walthamstow, East
London.
October 8. A baggage handler at an unidentified British airport had
an ISIS flag stitched to the inside of his glove. The discovery
raised the prospect that staff at British airports could be operating as part of a jihadi sleeper cell.
October 11. The McAuley Catholic High School in Doncaster
received
an online threat: "We have our sights set on you, and by Allah we will
kill every single infidel student at this school
#McAuleySchoolMassacre".
October 13. A Muslim bus driver
stopped
his vehicle in the middle of a busy road in Portsmouth for 10 minutes
while he conducted his daily prayer. Some 50 children, parents and
teachers from Meon Junior School in Southsea were returning home from a
school trip to London when the incident happened. Parents said the
driver put the lives of their children at risk.
October 13. ITV
aired
a new documentary, "Exposure: Islam's Non-Believers," which focused on
the risks to Muslims who abandon their religion. A former Muslim told
the documentary makers: "I remember saying to my mum, I don't believe in
God any more. And her saying, 'you can't tell anybody else because
they'll kill you, we are obliged to kill ex-Muslims.' And that it would
put me at extreme risk if anybody else was to find out, so that
conversation ended there."
October 18. A gang of Iranian men in Chelmsford
sexually exploited
and groomed vulnerable girls by supplying them with drugs and offering
them free pizza. All three victims were allegedly targeted by the group
which "farmed them out like cattle" to other men.
October 18. Nearly two-thirds of "child refugees" who claimed to be minors were
found
to be adults. Figures show that in the year to September 2015, 65% of
the child refugees who had their age disputed were found to be over 18.
October 22. A 19-year-old "Asian" was
arrested
after police found a bomb on a train in the London Underground. The
Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre raised the threat level for transport in
London to severe: an attack is highly likely.
October 22. A foster mother who took in a "child refugee"
discovered
that he was a 21-year-old jihadist. Rosie welcomed Jamal into her
family after social workers said he was a 12-year-old orphan who had
fled Afghanistan. Alarm bells rang when the family went swimming and
Rosie's 13-year-old commented on how hairy Jamal was. His last words to
Rosie were: "I'll kill you and I know where your children are."
October 27. A man and woman, both aged 35, were
arrested at Luton Airport on suspicion of terror offenses. The pair were attempting to travel to Syria.
October 30. The
Sunday Times reported
that the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, a
prominent Sharia court, was "sabotaging" criminal proceedings to protect
alleged perpetrators of domestic violence against women.
October 30. More than 25,000 signed a petition asking the government
to allow public calls to prayer at least three times a day in areas with
a high Muslim population. The petition
stated:
"The adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, is an
integral part of the Muslim faith. The number of people practicing the
religion of Islam in the United Kingdom exceeds three million. Some
neighborhood towns have more than 50% Muslim population. I believe it is
the right time to ... allow highly Muslim populated areas with a loud
call for prayer at least three times a day."
October 31. A "child refugee" from Afghanistan who was sent to Britain from the Calais Jungle camp in France
claimed
he was 16 but actually was 22. According to the law, unless a person
who is seeking asylum appears to be "significantly" over the age of 18
they should be "afforded the benefit of the doubt and treated as
children."
NOVEMBER 2016
November 1. Sharia law courts are operating "everywhere in the country,"
according
to Ahmad Al-Dubayan, chairman of UK Board of Sharia Councils, a body
set up to standardize the administration of Islamic law in the UK. He
said it was impossible to know how many Sharia courts are operating in
Britain.
November 4. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales,
said
that Britons have much to learn from the "vibrancy of the Muslim faith"
of the refugees and migrants arriving in the United Kingdom.
November 4. Nissar Hussain, a convert to Christianity, was
forced to flee
his home in Manningham after being subjected to harassment and violence
by Muslims. "This extreme persecution by certain people in the Muslim
community because we are converts has broken us as a family," he said.
Hussain, a 50-year-old father of six, said that his family and he have
endured a life of harassment, intimidation and fear at the hands of
Muslim hardliners since 2008, when they appeared in a Channel 4
documentary about the mistreatment of Muslim converts.
November 7. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is
failing
to prosecute honor crimes for fear of causing "unrest" in Asian
communities, a Scotland Yard whistleblower alleged. He disclosed that
"apathy" by prosecutors led to the collapse of what could have been the
first conviction for forced marriage in England.
November 11. CPS
failed
to pursue a case involving an Asian woman whose family forced her to
have an abortion, for fear of being labelled racist. It could have been
the first conviction for sex-selective abortion, but CPS dropped the
case amid fears of "political correctness."
November 14. Sharia courts are ordering women to stay with abusive husbands, a rape victim
told
the House of Commons. The mother-of-two revealed that she had been
beaten, robbed and raped by her estranged husband despite British courts
having banned him from approaching her. But family pressure persuaded
the British-Pakistani to try and obtain an Islamic divorce in a Sharia
court. Expecting to be treated sympathetically, she was instead told to
return to her violent husband.
November 16. Bedfordshire Police
deleted
Twitter posts about Islamophobia Awareness Month after users pointed
out its logo was similar to a hand gesture popular with ISIS jihadis.
November 20. The National Health Service
referred
420 patients and staff to police in England and Wales between July 2015
and June 2016 over concerns they were at risk of radicalization.
Statistics show an average of 35 referrals a month, up from 21 a month
the previous year.
November 24. The jihadists suspected of carrying out the terror
attacks in Paris and Brussels used British benefits payments to fund
their crimes. Kingston Crown Court
heard
how some of the most notorious and wanted terrorists in Europe had used
British taxpayers' money to fund their activities in Syria and
elsewhere.
November 26. More than half of asylum seekers surveyed about the quality of taxpayer-funded housing they have been provided
branded
it as "completely inadequate." Just 11% of people asked said the
housing was excellent, 8% described it as good, and 14% said it was
adequate.
November 28. Tareena Shakil, a woman from Burton who became the first
female from the UK to be jailed for joining the Islamic State,
received more than £132,000 in taxpayer-funded legal aid to pay for her defense.
DECEMBER 2016
December 5. A government-commissioned report
recommended
that migrants should swear an oath of allegiance as soon as they arrive
in the UK. It said that Muslims living in the UK are increasingly
identifying with a global Islamic "Ummah" (community), rather than with
being British.
December 10. An asylum seeker described as the "very model of a modern al-Qaeda terrorist" was
allowed to stay
in Britain despite being jailed for plotting attacks in the country.
The "sleeper agent" jihadist was about to be deported back to his native
Jordan. But Home Secretary Amber Rudd changed her mind after the man's
lawyers argued that he would be tortured.
December 12. Six people were
arrested
in Derby, Burton on Trent and London on suspicion of preparing an act
of terrorism. Counter-terrorism investigators said they disrupted what
they believe was a "significant plot" to attack the UK that was inspired
by the Islamic State.
December 13. The Black Health Initiative in Leeds
warned
that girls are being taken to female genital mutilation (FGM) "parties"
in cities across England. The charity said that midwives from Africa
are being flown into the country to carry out the illegal practice. West
Yorkshire Police said they were aware girls were being subjected to FGM
locally.
December 15. More than £600,000 (€700,000; $738,000) of taxpayers' money is
being spent
every week so lawyers can give free legal advice to asylum seekers. A
total of 38,005 cases were approved for free legal advice over the last
financial year, often in cases where the applicant was fighting a
decision where their asylum claim had already been denied.
December 17. More than 1,000 Muslims took to the streets of London
chanting
"Allahu Akbar" and demanding an Islamic caliphate. They gathered
outside the empty Syrian embassy in Belgrave Square, London to protest
American policies regarding Aleppo, the largest city in Syria.
December 20. Heavily-armed police officers were
deployed to Canterbury Cathedral to guard the nativity scene against possible jihadist attacks.
December 21. Police in Bristol
increased patrols in the city center due to concerns about "Islamophobia" in the wake of the Berlin terror attack.
December 23. Syed Hoque, 37, of Stoke-on-Trent, was
convicted
of two counts of funding terrorism. He used aid convoys to Syria to
send thousands of pounds to his extremist nephew who was fighting
alongside al-Qaeda.
December 24. Munir Hassan Mohammed, 35, and Rowaida El-Hassan, 32,
appeared
at Westminster Magistrates' Court on charges of making explosives.
Mohammed, an Eritrean who is seeking asylum in the UK, was also charged
with being a member of the Islamic State.
December 25. The main course for inmates at HMP Bristol prison for Christmas dinner
was halal chicken. Other prisons across the country also served halal options for Christmas. HMP Birmingham offered halal beef.
December 26. Sixty children are
referred
to the government's Prevent counter-terrorism program each week. In
2015/16, there were around 7,500 referrals, a rate of 20 a day. Of
those, 3,100 were aged under 18, and 61 were under the age of ten.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
