Man who nailed bacon to mosque door avoids prison sentence after Muslim community asks for leniency
Posted: September 24, 2011 Filed under: Christian extremism, Islam 11 Comments »
A churchgoer who stuck bacon to the door of a mosque in South Tyneside as part of a religious hate campaign was branded “un-Christian” by a judge. But John White, 63, walked free from court after the chairman of the mosque wrote a letter to court, begging for leniency.
White was caught on CCTV carrying out the attacks in South Shields in January, Newcastle Crown Court heard. On January 2, the bacon was placed outside the Jam-E-Masjid mosque, in Baring Street, South Shields, which has about 200 regular worshippers. Throughout the month, meat was repeatedly left outside the mosque and a member’s home in Coston Drive, South Shields, was also targeted, with bacon even being stuck to the front door of the mosque.
Tom Moran, prosecuting, said: “Muslims are not allowed to eat or touch pork, and this was absolutely intended to be offensive.”
The bacon was found by the mosque’s treasurer, who covered it with a cardboard box to prevent other members from being offended, then called the police. In a victim impact statement, the family whose home was targeted said they feared that the action was the work of an extremist group.
Mr Moran said: “South Shields has a substantial Bangladeshi and Muslim community, and, by and large, they are well integrated. These offences coincided with a time when in other parts of the world, right-wing extremists were threatening to burn the Quran (the central religious text of the Muslim religion).”
Concerned that the attacks could be sinister threats from a right-wing group, police trawled through CCTV footage before arresting White.
He admitted five charges of religiously aggravated harassment, but claimed that his motivations were personal, targeting a particular Muslim family, over a 20-year grudge.
The court heard that White, a Christian, has attended a church on the same street as the mosque for 20 years.
Despite the fear he caused to the Muslim and Bangladeshi community, chairman of the Jam-E-Masjid mosque, Mohammed Miah, asked the judge to show leniency. In a letter read out in court, Mr Miah described how he had known White since 1982 and said he was known and liked in the community. He said: “We wish the courts to be lenient with John. Although we were upset initially, we do not wish for any serious consequences to happen to John.”
Judge Michael Cartlidge commended the forgiving attitude of the Muslim community and condemned White’s actions as “un-Christian” and “stupid”. White was given a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months. He is also now banned for 12 months from going within 100 metres of the mosque or the family home he targeted.
Shields Gazette, 24 September 2011
i wonder if the muslims here will call for leniacy reguarding aisha bibi in pakistan and release her imediatly on the false charges that she is charged with, i also wonder if there is an iman brave enougth to go to pakistan,iran even saudi and call for religious freedom for all and the abolishment of the racist religious courts that are operating in islamic countrys were religious persecution is far worse than A SLICE OFF BACON on ur door step and the abolishment off the RACIST apostacy law that forbids muslims converting to christinity (that law is basicly a hostage sitution u may as well be holding a gun to the persons head ) and also make a stand against hanging homesexualls or stoning adulters
what exactly is your point Mark? Have you been to Pakistan to complain about these things? Have you been to our own Houses of Parliament or written to your MP even?
if one looks back in history all the major religions flourished well and under no harm when islamic rule was upon them…Islam is a peaceful religion but it also teaches do not oppress and not to be oppressed!If you actually go long back into history and read upon the British empire you will find who the real cruel rulers were. They caused some evil acts that one cant imagine, but its such a shame that all this is never mentioned in any school history classroom, actually youngster dont even know what the british empire was!
yes the british empire was cruel but so was every other empire througth out history we the british know our empire was cruel we admit this,, it is only the islamic history that is corrupted to portray your selfs as noble thats why muslims will never learn from there mistakes that is why christian countrys in the west are more civilised and why so many muslims run away from islamic countrys to live in christian ones. i dont want to live under islamic rule i want freedom i beleve everyone is equal reguardless off race or religion we shud all pay the same tax be given the same oppurtunitys as each other…
Dear Mark,
May God erase all hatred from your heart and replace with love love love. Many Muslims do not portray what Islamic teaching is. That is sad. So Islam cannot be blamed. Historically, Islam gave women the right to ownership when the dark ages in the West was still trying to decide if women were human or animals. Not my words…its history. Go read history to see how the Arabs protect their Jewish neighbours. Rabbi Weiss admits this to happen for centuries. So let us stop insults and love all God’s creations because God created them and place them in the same universe as us. Be fair, what is good, should be praised and what isnt praiseworthy should be pointed out for the sake of peace and humanity.
May God erase all hatred from MUSLIMS hearts and replace with love love love. you say islam cant be blamed but its islam that has been committing crimes against man, We have come out off the dark ages but islam is still in the dark ages there is no womens rights in islamIc countrys in christian countrys in the west women have the same rights as us AS IT SHOULD BE.. and i dont think it will be hard to find a jew who will say that islam has persecuted them for centrys. FACT:
90%-95% OF ALL THE CONFLICTS ON THIS PLANET TODAY
INVOLVE MUSLIMS FIGHTING NON-MUSLIMS OR EACH OTHER!
There are many trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, it’s easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in “Palestine,” Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, etc…
maybe instead off preaching love and forgiveness and good will to me maybe you can spend that precious time preaching this in a mosque in afghanistan,pakistan, or even saudia then again u will probably be lynched as soon as you leave the mosque
please say a prayer or send a letter for Yousof Nadarkhani, 33, who was arrested and sentenced to death in Iran’s northern city of Rasht in 2009. An appeals court upheld his sentence last year after he refused to reconvert to Islam, his lawyer is Mohammad Ali Dadkhah. also for aisha bibi in pakistan and also ask for the release ashtania who is about to be stoned to death by YOUR RELIGION OF PEACE show me you have a soul even tho he is an apostate
stoning people to death is evil
hanging homesexualls is evil
apostacy law is evil
only 1 entity will command you to kill in his name and that is the light bearer (lucifer the same person who appeared to muhammed)
How sad,
You see, when Muslims talk about hundreds of years of peaceful rule in places like Andalusia and the Ottoman empire you losers bring up individual cases of (usually) Christians (cos that’s the only minority you really care about). First of all, have you conducted some kind of judicial review of these incidents or something? How do you know for sure that it is blatant victimisation? Are you sure you are not just pouncing when an apparent miscarriage of justice plays to your preconceived bias?
So what if certain minorities have had a hard time in so called Muslim nations? What are Christian majority countries doing to their minorities, Muslim and otherwise? And by the way, which are the ‘Christian’ values nations? Perhaps the United States, (slavery, genocide in SE Asia, Jim Crow, internment of Japanese Americans, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, blah blah), or the U.K (British Empire, nuff said) or is it Germany (don’t go there! At least the Christian authorities like the Vatican stood up for the rights of the Jews…oh wait, they didn’t), France (banning veils, ethnically cleansing Romany people). Not to mention the hundreds of violent attacks on Muslims and other minorities like asylum seekers that go on in these countries. DAILY.
You show what a prejudiced idiot you are by worrying about the sad fate of one Christian woman and ignoring the tens of thousands of casualties that the US and other’s are inflicting on Muslims in South Asia etc. I could point to numerous acts of physical violence and even murder in places like the UK against people of Muslim background. Does that then condemn Christians? Of course not, Use your brain ass-hole, a life is a life, weather it’s Christian or Muslim or whatever, You don’t deserve more props for getting persecuted just cos you are a Christian. Injustice is bad WHOEVER it happens to.
It just so happens that the balance of injustice at the moment is that it is being disproportionately inflicted on the Muslims (and other poor countries) by the European extraction nations that you no doubt identify as ‘Christian’.
750,00 Muslims killed in Afghanistan by ‘Christian’ troops and you’re worried about the incarceration of ONE woman in Pakistan. And you won’t even wait for a court to decide if there’s a case to answer before saying she is innocent.
And don’t pretend like you are for the rights of gays and women. Homophobia in Islamic countries is a figment of your own imagination. We decriminalised homosexuality in 1862 in the Ottoman Empire (Caliphate). When did you decriminalise it?
And while we are at it, try and read a book for once in your life and find out how Christianity was spread through Pagan Europe by people like King Cnut and numerous others. By violence. Naked violence. Like that’s what Christ taught. How did you guys try to spread Christianity in the Holy land? A little camping trip organised by the Church called the Crusades, so bloody that they even killed Christians. And we won’t even talk about the Spanish Inquisition. Or the Inquisition in the New World. Or the Philippines, where again, Christianity was spread by force. Oh and what is now Pakistan, where the missionaries came in on the heels of a violent and rapine colonialist enterprise.
Perhaps you should look at how various Christian denominations treated ‘heresy’ before you talk about the apostasy law in Islam. Oh and apostasy is not ‘racist’, I advise buying a dictionary.
And don’t pretend you are British when you talk about ‘Our British Empire’. And don’t try to make it out that Muslims are racist when our religious book condemns not only racism but colour bias WITHIN races (Surah Ar – Rum).
I’m not saying Christians believe that kind of stuff. I know that they don’t. Some BAD CHRISTIANS believed this kind of stuff before and some BAD CHRISTIANS believe it now. They do not represent the teachings of Christ.
What is sad is that you are too dumb to think of this lame stuff yourself and got it all from those extremist Christian websites, written by people even dumber than you.
You are an embarrassment to Christ and real Christians and the only person who you can be sure Lucifer appeared to is you when you had the idea to write that reply.
Very quickly, Islam is a way of life – it is not a person. People commit crimes, not methods. “but its islam that has been committing crimes against man” – man has been committing crime against man throughout history, there has never been a “method” or “process” that has committed a crime.
It’s really depressing how some people just try to find a way of alienating a part of British society, even when that part of community has done something commendable…
DEAR FREE LOVER
YOU SAID : So what if certain minorities have had a hard time in so called Muslim nations? What are Christian majority countries doing to their minorities
im curious what are Christian majority countries doing to their minorities ?? because im under the impression that we pay the same taxs, intitled to the same health care and also intitled to the same benifits and live under the same law im equal to you in every way,, but if im mistaten PLEASE correct me
YOU SAID ; slavery, genocide in SE Asia, Jim Crow, internment of Japanese Americans, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, blah blah
you are correct mate we did this but are you really trying to tell me muslim nations have never committed crimes against humanity really ? as i said before we learn from our mistakes,, and banning veils really ?? if you think banning veils is wrong and muslim women should dress the way they wish then you should also agree that western women can dress the way they wish in islamic countrys with there nice summer dresses i can see them all now walking around in citys like islamabad,terhran,mekka,medina to name a few more
YOU SAID: a life is a life, weather it’s Christian or Muslim or whatever i agree we are all equal REGUARDLESS off religion
i dont agree with the war in afghanistan theres nothing we can achieve in that OPPRESSIVE country we have killed osam bin laden at a cost off over 1 trillion dollars and 3000 service personnel dead it wasnt worth the money or lifes lost on both sides,, if it was up to me in afghanistan i would off changed the legal code off that country to comply with the united nations but no we left it the way it was before granted little girls are allowed to go back to school again and husbands can no longer rape the wifes WOW lets pat ourselfs on are back.,
i didnt agree in the 1st gulf war or the 2nd we should off left saddam to it,, let him invade kuwait and saudia,, muslim nations shud off dealt with it
and just to remind you it was CHRISTIAN COUNTRYS that saved the WORLD from hitler (who wouldnt off stopped at the jews by the way he would off wiped everyone out who was not white)
YOU SAID: We decriminalised homosexuality in 1862 in the Ottoman Empire (Caliphate). really ok what country in the islamic world allows gays ?? in fact were are all the gay bars ?? fact gays are safer in christian countrys in the west than in islamic ones
yes christinity was spread by the sword but wasnt islam ?? i think so
during the crusades both sides committed crimes lets not pretend they didnt we admit this but islamic countrys cover there crimes up and point the finger at everyone else as ALWAYS
both sides believe jeruslem is theres during that peroid both sides had a claim,,,
it was christinitys most holyest spot islams THIRD spanish
Inquisition yes bad various Christian denominations treated ‘heresy’ again bad and apostacy is not racist my mistake BUT LETS GET IT RIGHT IT IS STILL WRONG TO PERSECUTE PEOPLE WHO CONVERT AWAY FROM ISLAM wouldnt you agree ??????
and it was my own observation when it came to islam not some website if you honestly believe that islamic countrys like saudia,iran,iraq,pakistan,yemen,oman to name a few are perfect examples for humans to live like then its not me whos the idiot its you buddy
take care and enjoy your self in our FREE country were all religions are equal,, men and women are equal and lets not forget the gays unlike sum countrys i can mention
Most people in todays day and age mix culture with religion e.g. stoning woman, thats not allowed but their are extremists muslim who should be ashamed of themselves when clearly Only God has the right to take away someones life and nobody else, whether they have commited a crime or not. The reason why most gay people are not accepted in Muslim societies is because it is not accepted in the religion but then killing or prosecuting the person for being gay is not right and it is here where culture is again being mixed. Islam teaches peace and not violence its just people who dont practise it properly. Just because some people act or behave a certain way doesnt mean the religion is bad. Ever thought that the person (muslim) is not following their religion correctly.
Yes terrible behaviour, he certainly couldn’t use anything Jesus said in the New Testament to support his actions. I appreciate the response by the Muslim leader..very commendable.