An inmate at a high-security jail is accused of trying to murder the prison’s imam after obtaining a knife behind bars, a court has heard.

Ahmed Ali Alid, 47, is accused of the attempted murder of Roderic Vassie in an incident at HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire on August 8 last year.

Westminster Magistrates Court heard Alid, a Moroccan national, is accused of having a knife and using it to “slice” the top of Mr Vassie’s head before attempting to stab him five times.

Alid is also accused of inflicting actual bodily harm on prison guard Sarah Mitchell on October 21 last year, after he had been moved to HMP Wakefield.

Alid, who was charged following a Counter Terrorism Policing North East investigation, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to face the charges for the first time.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram sent the case to the Old Bailey for a hearing on April 17.

Alid, from Hartlepool, did not indicate any pleas to the charges of attempted murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon in a prison.

“The defendant was a serving prisoner at HMP Full Sutton,” set out prosecutor Sally-Anne Russell.

“The first incident is that, on August 8, he attacked the imam in the prison using a sharp weapon.”

She said it is alleged Alid “sliced the top of his head with the weapon and then attempted to stab him a further five times to the head and neck area”.

Ms Russell said the alleged attack on Ms Mitchell happened when she opened his cell door at HMP Wakefield.

Alid appeared for the court hearing on a videolink from HMP Wakefield and he remains in custody.

We have written before on many occasions about Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub. His abuse against the small but beleaguered Ahmadi Muslim community in the U.K. has been documented by us, as we have also done so regarding his anti-Shia rants.

However, one would assume that he may have changed his mind over the last year, but it seems that his intolerance for Ahmadi Muslims continues and his recent posting once again called them ‘Kafirs’ – a deeply loaded and derogatory term that has been associated in many countries with attacks against people of other beliefs.

Ayub preaches in several mosques, including in Nottingham and Manchester. We ask, how can this man, with views like this, continue to have access to audiences which are promoting sectarianism, hatred and division?

(Note: ‘Qadiyanis’ is a derogatory term to describe the Ahmadi community).

A New Mexico judge received death threats and Islamophobic abuse on Tuesday a day after she granted bail to five Muslims charged with child abuse and accused of training children at their compound to carry out attacks, court officials said.

Police raided the compound in Taos County on Aug. 3 following a tip-off that children held there were starving. They found 11 children in need of food and water, and three days later unearthed the body of a toddler.

In an order published on Tuesday, district Judge Sarah Backus said prosecutors had produced evidence that was “troubling and unusual” but failed to show the defendants abused the children and were a threat to society if released on bail.

One caller on Tuesday told Backus “her throat would be slit” while another said he wished “someone would smash her head,” New Mexico courts spokesman Barry Massey said.

Backus was bombarded with abuse and criticism on Twitter, and received hundreds of calls and emails, most of which referred to her using terms like “Islamic terrorism sympathizer”, Massey said.

Backus closed her court and the Taos County courthouse went into lockdown after threats of violence against all staff.

Prosecutors alleged the dead toddler was a severely ill boy abducted from Georgia by his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the son of a prominent New York imam. Prosecutors said the boy died at the compound in February as Ibn Wahhaj tried to heal him through prayer.

Prosecutors allege Wahhaj gave firearms training to two teenage boys at the compound to attack “corrupt institutions.”

New Mexico’s Republican Governor Susana Martinez slammed Backus’ bail decision in a statement, saying the state’s Supreme Court had been “dictating pretrial release for all kinds of dangerous criminals.”

The five defendants – two men, their wives and a sister – must wear GPS ankle bracelets once released on $20,000 bail each and are not allowed back to the compound, Backus ruled.

DIVIDED COMMUNITY

Their 11 children are in protective care and the defendants may visit them once released, Backus said.

The case has split the Taos County community between those who believe the group was involved in a failed attempt to live “off the grid,” and others who fear they were hatching a plot to attack schools, banks and police, as prosecutors alleged.

“There’s a murderer in the bunch,” said Larry Salazar, 67, a rancher who lives about 2 miles from the high-desert compound. “What are we going to do to protect ourselves? Where are they going to be going to?”.

Another resident, named Quincy, who requested his full name not be used, said he didn’t think the defendants were dangerous, “especially when they came in here using their real names and introduced themselves to every possible person who was their neighbour.”

Ibn Wahhaj has not entered a plea but the other four adults have plead not guilty. Wahhaj must remain in custody as he still faces a Georgia arrest warrant for the abduction of his son.

Ibn Wahhaj’s wife Jany Leveille, 35, from Haiti, was taken into custody by immigration officials on Tuesday, according to the Taos County Sheriff’s Office.

One hundred mosques provided the basis for the Developing Diversity directory published by Faith Matters which looked at the top 100 leading mosques in England which met a majority of the criteria that Muslim women wanted to see within them.

Inclusion and accessibility to religious institutions not only helps to increase the development of healthy communities but it also sends a powerful message to those who think equality is of secondary concern within some religious places of worship. This is relevant to all faith communities and in this instance, the project looked at existing good practice within mosques in England.

The purpose of this project was therefore to compile a directory of the 100 leading mosques that provided the best access to women, catering for their needs and allowing them to play their rightful role in the decision making processes. Each mosque was awarded a rating out of five stars based on criteria developed through women’s focus groups.The directory was launched through high-profiled local events and widely circulated to all statutory national and local bodies, encouraging these bodies to work with these best practice mosques.

500 mosques were contacted throughout England in the course of the project and the top 100 were rated and then included in the booklet.

The purpose of this project can therefore be summarised as follows. Faith Matters attempted:

1) To develop criteria through Muslim women’s focus groups for measuring how ‘women-friendly’ a mosque is.

2) To provide a mapping of the 100 most women friendly mosques in Britain – i.e, more stars, more women-friendly.

3) To encourage government and other statutory agencies to engage and work with the most women-friendly and best practice mosques where this is likely to help reach particularly hard to reach groups.

4) To bring recognition to the socio-economic welfare activities of the mosques.

5) To encourage a sense of competition between mosques so as to improve their engagement with and inclusion of women.

6) To improve the role of women in mosques, how mosque services respond to their needs, and the opportunities for them to play a greater role in their mosques and communities.

7) To enable women to acquire the skills and confidence to seek positions of leadership within their communities and wider society.

Focus groups for the project were held in London (Harrow and Haringey), Coventry, Derby, Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford and over 100 women were involved in the focus groups. The work therefore covered the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, London and Yorkshire regions.

Initially, the focus groups covered mainly Pakistani women with few examples of Turkish, Somali or Bangladeshi Muslim women. We knew that this could potentially skew results and we then further undertook 3 focus groups in London and Manchester that included Somali and Turkish speaking women.  In total, 8 focus groups were held and the results of the focus groups led us to the following conclusions. These conclusions were used as benchmarks through which to assess the mosques on.

1.    Separate prayer space for women,

2.  Services and activities for women (i.e. childcare and or women’s training or mentoring sessions),

3.    An Imam accessible to women (or a women scholar),

4.    Inclusion of women in decision making,

5.    Women holding office on the mosque committees

This Developing Diversity Directory is the first of its kind and places the role of women directly within the development of mosques. Historically within Islam, the role of women was central to the development of Muslim communities and within the life of mosques and this history cannot and should not be forgotten. Women are fundamental to the development of healthy and pro-active communities and their role within faith institutions is no different. They are drivers for positive social change.

The Developing Diversity Directory can be downloaded by pressing on the link.