Aiden Fletcher received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a Muslim doctor.

Fletcher, 23, headbutted Dr Syeda Jafari, who works in the accident and emergency department at the Queen’s Medical Centre. During the unprovoked racist assault, he told her “Go back to your own country”.

Dr Jafari was out with friends that evening, trying to locate the home of a friend who had recently lost her mother on October 29.

Andrew Conboy, prosecuting, said that Dr Jafari heard a man say ‘move out of the way’ as Mr Fletcher stood in front of her. Dr Jafari and her friends tried to leave the scene but the defendant grew more aggressive. Believing that she had insulted him, he assaulted her without provocation.

In mitigation, Serena Mandair said that Mr Fletcher had no racist views. And had been drinking that day after attending the funeral of a relative.

On February 19 the Nottingham Post reported that Aiden Fletcher faced the possibility of prison. That possibility turned into a six-month prison term, suspended for two years. The unemployed Mr Fletcher must complete 140 hours of unpaid work, as well as paying  compensation and £280 costs.

The assault left Dr Jafari with a concussion. Her father passed away worried about the safety of his daughter, as this was the first time she had faced such hatred and violence. She is now abroad mourning the deaths of two family members.

Through her own remarkable courage and support from our staff, she will donate the £500 costs to Tell MAMA. She told the Nottingham Post “It will go to a charity which heard about the case and which has been extremely supportive for the last six months. I am feeling a bit low because of the sentence”.

Dr Jafari’s kind gesture humbles our staff. We are very grateful for this donation. We will continue to support Dr Jafari beyond this trial outcome.  And we our glad that our continued support helped her through a very difficult six months.

The suspended sentence for Mr Fletcher is eyebrow-raising but may owe to the judge’s decision not to punish his children. He was convicted for affray in 2011 and will now face 40 sessions with a probation officer.

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We have received a report of an assault against a Muslim female student who was part of the ‘Discover Islam Awareness’ week which is held by the King’s College London Islamic Society (ISoc).

Muslim women who were at the stand outside the Strand campus were there to try and break down misconceptions about Islam and to respond to questions members of the public may have around Islam and Muslims.  They were approached by two men who disrupted the stall and the activities of the women, leading to an assault on a Muslim woman, where her niqab was pulled.

We have spoken to a witness on the Strand Campus of King’s College London and Roar News also reported that two men have been arrested for “using racially aggravated threatening words and behaviour.”

The incident has caused some anger with Muslim students who approached us at Tell MAMA and who stated that the security on campus did not intervene when the hate incident was taking place and that in their view, the inaction emboldened the perpetrators. According to witness, a handful of students had to intervene to stop the anger and abuse against Muslim women that was targeted by two males who approached the stand. Furthermore, Roar News also has highlighted the following comment from a student called Fatima Ali:

“security only called the police when the animal rights activists said the men were being aggressive but not when someone complained about a Muslim woman’s niqab being pulled down”.

The student news site also highlighted the following statement that King’s put out earlier on Friday evening. They stated:

“two security managers and a senior member of staff arrived on the scene and positioned themselves between both parties and attempted to defuse the situation. The two men were asked to leave the area but they refused. The police were called by security at 1.10pm and arrived at 1.50pm.”

Tell MAMA will be writing to King’s College London on this incident to provide further re-assurance to Muslim students on campus and to provide guidance to students both on and off campus around personal safety and security. Given the rise in anti-Muslim hate incidents over the last few years and a more visible set of anti-Muslim hate incidents nationally, it is imperative that university campuses work with ISoc’s or other agencies in ensuring that students get basic advice and support to reduce the risk of being targeted.

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Merseyside Police reached out to Tell MAMA following a violent and unprovoked assault on a Muslim woman in the Everton area of Merseyside.

The 38-year-old, who wears the hijab and is of Arab descent, had passed a children’s play area on route to a supermarket at around 8pm on February 11. She noticed two white men stood near to the junction of Ullswater Street.

One of the men shouted racist abuse at her which was anti-migrant in nature. The second man then approached the woman, grabbed her hijab and punched her repeatedly in the face. Both men then left the scene.

The vicious assault left the woman with bruising and swelling to her face. Her fractured cheekbone will require surgery to repair. The attack left the woman feeling dazed, hurt and in shock.

Staff from Tell MAMA continue to offer further support to the woman. Merseyside Police released a public appeal and e-fit of one of the suspects on February 19.

Tell MAMA and Merseyside Police have been working together to support the victim. We are pleased that in a case as serious as this she had the confidence to contact the police.

Although physical attacks such as this are somewhat rare, it is essential that they are reported to the Police or Tell MAMA so that the perpetrators are brought to justice.

If you have been targeted with anti-Muslim hostility you can call us in confidence on 0800 456 1226 or email us at info@tellmamauk.org.

Anyone with information about the assault can contact Merseyside Police’s SIGMA team on 0151 777 4078 or the confidential Crimestoppers line on 0800 555 111.

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The Evening Standard has highlighted how a young British born Bangladeshi feared for his life as he suffered a brutal assault in East London. (Details of the attack were initially put up on Facebook by a relative of the victim and they showed a brutal assault on the young man. Facebook later decided to remove all traces of the postings.)

The 26 year old was parked and was waiting in Empson Street in Bow at around 2 pm on Sunday, December the 20th.

As the father of two was parked waiting to pick up his partner and his two young children, he stated that he noticed that a van had slowed down near his vehicle and that the occupants had allegedly made racist remarks at him as they went by. The van went onto park nearby the victim’s vehicle as he continued to wait for his family.

The father of two got out of his vehicle as he saw the individuals park their van and he decided to walk over to the two males who had by now, got out of the van. What ensued, was a brutal assault on the British born Bangladeshi.

The victim stated to the Evening Standard that,

“They called me a Paki and Muslim. Without any communication from me, one of them punched me on my nose and the other had me in a headlock. I thought I was going to pass out.

“I got hit on my leg with a ratchet, which has broken my leg and I’ve had to have an operation on it.

“They stamped on my head and all over me like a football.

“I was then getting kicked and kicked and it lasted for about seven or eight minutes.

“I was in fear of my life.”

The post Asian Muslim Man So Violently Assaulted that Perpetrator Left an Imprint on His Head appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Police in Southwark have released images of two women they are keen to speak with following an anti-Muslim attack against a Muslim woman in her 40s.

The incident took place on October 28 at roughly 20:10. Officers responded to reports that a Muslim woman experiencing racial and religious verbal abuse. As police arrived, the suspects had punched the Muslim woman in the head, and kicked her off the bus. The verbal abuse continued after the assault.

Police confirmed that the main suspects are two black women in their 20s. Nor have they made any arrests. The story made national headlines last month.

An eyewitness tweeted that the woman was visibly Muslim.

Just witnessed a hate crime at the Elephant. Muslim woman in hijab kicked backwards off a bus to the floor

— Antonia Bance (@antoniabance) October 28, 2015

With the release of fresh CCTV they also hope to speak to witnesses who may have photographed or filmed the attack and abuse.

Images released as part of appeal following hate crime on #Southwark bus https://t.co/GOijnYuGRb pic.twitter.com/N2MBVtgSoS

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) December 16, 2015

Did you travel on the number 63 bus on the evening of October 28? It departed from Kings Cross towards Peckham. The incident happened on London Road in Southwark.  Do you recognise the women in the CCTV photos?

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 101, quoting reference number 3031350/15, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. 

The post Can you help? Witness appeal after Muslim woman assaulted on London bus appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We received a report today about an assault on a Niqab wearing female which took place yesterday at around 7 pm on the 2nd of December 2015.

The witness to the assault was on the 333 bus from Tooting and she was travelling towards Elephant and Castle when a white male aged between 50-60 years old made his way towards the exit of the bus and where a woman who was wearing a Niqab was standing. Overweight and scruffily dressed, the white male suddenly assaulted the female and punched her twice in the back as the bus doors opened and he calmly walked off the bus and muttered something to the victim. Individuals on the bus witnessed the assault, yet no-one helped the victim.

Seeing this violence, the witness who reported in this incident asked if the Niqab wearing female was ‘ok’ to which she nodded and she later got off at her stop and walked off into the distance.

Time and time again, women who wear the Niqab have told us that they suffer numerous anti-Muslim hate incidents and crimes against them, many of which involve assaults.

Rightfully, as a society, we abhor violence against women, yet, why do some males in our society think that it is appropriate to target, humiliate and harm a female who covers her face and body? Such actions are unacceptable and deserve nothing but our contempt as a society. No individual should be targeted for their identity though assaults against females should rouse us into action since it touches on the core of our values, the protection of women’s rights. The non-action of members of the public on the bus yesterday may well have given the green light to this woman beater that it is acceptable to target Niqab wearing women. It is not acceptable and we need to make that clear to thugs like him.

The post Assault on Niqab Wearing Women Shows the Male Violence Many Suffer appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Two Asian males were assaulted in the grounds of the Asda supermarket in the Dalton area of Rotherham yesterday. The attack was particularly violent and Tell MAMA has spoken to one of the victims today as he made his way to the hospital after a brutal assault on the young man as he simply walked out of the Asda store after buying his lunch.

This is a short transcript of some of the details of the assault on the young man of Pakistani heritage:

“I was shopping in Asda around mid-day yesterday with my young brother and we bought some food and some cans of baked beans. I was holding the crate of food and we decided that we needed to get some money out of the cash machine before we left the supermarket. I withdrew the money and took back the crate from my brother and noticed that there was a young white male with two females, parked very close to my car.

As I walked to the my vehicle, I noticed the young white male make statements against another Asian male in the car park who drove off looking rather irritated. I thought nothing of it, though as I got close to my car, I also noticed that there was another white male who came out of the entrance to Asda and who was shouting at me.  He kept saying “what are you laughing at” and got more and more aggressive as he approached me. Whilst doing so, he also put on a glove and I took that to be that he was going to assault me.

I put down the crate in an effort to try and defend myself but the assault on me started and continued with the aggressive white male perpetrator getting me into a headlock. It was then that I noticed that I was being attacked by the second male I had seen next to my vehicle and by this time I had curled up into a ball onto the ground as they continued to assault and kick me.

What followed was then brutal. The perpetrators picked up my cans of food and started to throw them at my head. One of them hit me in the head with significant force and cans were being continuously thrown at me which could have caused me a serious head injury.

I remember threats being made against my younger brother and racially motivated hate speech being voiced by the attackers. They clearly were looking to target someone who was Asian and they found a target in me.

It was only because of the actions of the supermarket security guard that probably saved me from very serious injury as he came to my defence and pushed the attackers apart. Finally, what is also sad is that the females in the vehicle moved the vehicle whilst I was being attacked so that the group could make a get away. They were accomplices in this.”

Another day and another racially aggravated hate crime in the small town of Rotherham. Some within the Asian community say that Rotherham has become ‘the flashpoint’ for race hatred after the grooming scandal. Only time will tell whether things continue to get worse or better.

The post Asian Male Viciously Attacked in Rotherham. Town Becomes Flashpoint for Racist Hate appeared first on TELL MAMA.

This morning, a taxi driver of Aghan heritage was found in the street with head injuries after suffering a serious assault. South Yorkshire Police were called to the scene and the taxi driver was later admitted to hospital and as part of a routine procedure, was induced into a coma.

The victim is responding to stimuli though he has suffered serious head injuries. Rotherham police have confirmed the arrest of a 20-year-old male who is in custody and a second individual is being sought regarding the serious assault on the taxi driver.

We have been extremely active in Rotherham over the last 3 years and we have reported in numerous hate incidents and crimes. More recently, the murder of Mushin Ahmed rocked the community, as have numerous attacks on mosques and incidents against taxi drivers who have talked to us about the increasing hate that they are receiving.

If anyone has information regarding this serious assault, please do get in touch with the police on 101, quoting incident number 178 of October the 3rd 2015.

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