'Race-hate' gang beats devout Muslim to brink of death in front of his granddaughter Read more: htt

[Alameda]

Source: Daily Mail Online

A Muslim pensioner was on the brink of death last night after an appalling race-hate attack by a gang of schoolboys.

Retired care worker Ekram Haque, 67, was battered to the ground in front of his three-year- old granddaughter Marian.

Doctors have told his family he has no chance of survival. Last night he was on a ventilator as friends and relatives paid their last respects.

Police are linking the attack to other assaults on elderly Asians. The attackers, who were black and wore hooded tops, are believed to be as young as 12.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211556/Muslim-pensioner-brink-death-race-hate-attack.html

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I have no words to comment on this....

[Why Syzygy]

1. I have one. COWARDS. nt

[northernlights]

19. COWARDS is good. THUGS works too. nt

[Gman2]

2. Here it comes, they have taught their schoolboys. Won't be long now!

[JonQ]

3. I'm curious about the motivation

the title suggests religious, but then it says it's part of a trend of attacks on elderly asians, so that would be racial.

[dipsydoodle]

7. There is no rhyme or reason

They're just sickos.

[BOG PERSON]

14. As if islamophobia doesn't have a racial component. n/t

[JonQ]

28. All asians are not muslim

most in fact are not.


It would be odd to target "asians" when you're out to get muslims, or vice-versa.

[harmonicon]

16. Muslim/Asian are basically synonyms in the UK

The motivation, though, is far more simple: difference. Attacking people who speak a different language, dress, and look different from what some would like to think England is.

[Jkid]

20. Strange

When I think asian, I think of either south asia or east asia?

Why they call some musilms in the UK asian? Because I'm sure that there are Chinese asians in england.

[Posteritatis]

30. "Asia" itself is a mobile term in these ways

It originally applied mostly to what's now Turkey and the area around there ("Asia Minor," etc); by the time the full scope of the continent was well-known "Asia" already mainly meant the specific chunk of it that made up that half of the Islamic world in a lot of peoples' minds.

Also, a lot of the British experience with the continent would have been the regions they controlled into the forties and fifties, namely India, Pakistan, swathes of the Middle East, etc. To them, when something was going on that Britain knew about "in Asia," it was usually there, so the association shows up that way.

It's probably similar to how the US (or Canada) mainly thinks south or east Asia when we hear the term "Asian" but don't think to apply it to the Middle East - that's the part of the continent we've had comparatively more dealings with back when the continent was working its way into our own societies' heads.

[harmonicon]

35. Here, "asian" usually means south asian, particularly Pakistani.

Things like equal opportunity forms are wildly different than in the US - choices include "white English", "white Irish", "other white", "asian", and "chinese or other oriental" - really. You couldn't make this shit up. And since the bulk of asians here have roots in Pakistan or muslim populations in India, and most Muslims in the country are also from those populations, asian/muslim are used interchangeably.

[Igel]

47. The categories make sense.

Vocabulary, more than anything, is situated in context.

Americans only think of East Asians as the prototypical Asians because our history makes the context different, the lexical restriction makes sense. The same process happened in Britain, but with a different lexical restriction because the context was different.

Take out "Asian" as a possible cover term for for "East Asian", you're left with a bit of difficulty for the proper term. "Oriental" is good enough--it simply means "somebody from the east"; granted, it presupposes that you're situated in the west, or at least on a boundary judged neutral--perhaps something like the Greenwich meridian. In the US, it may have been more derogatory a term than in Britain.

You want something that would look strange to a Yank's eyes, consider South Africa, where "black" and "coloured" cover different groups.

[harmonicon]

48. Is that still the case in in South Africa?

I know that it was decades ago but just assumed that it had been done away with. All of this stuff is completely crazy, as far as I'm concerned, but of course if you do away with it you run into the sort of problems that France has with race relations, even though they don't officially make any distinction. In Holland there is a law that says if your name isn't Dutch, you're allowed to put a fake Dutch name on a job application, because studies have shown that employers will discriminate based on the "foreignness" of an applicant's name.

[Quantess]

54. You don't get it, do you?

I checked out some of your other posts. You don't get it.

[JonLP24]

40. Iraq is in Southwest Asia

The muslim religion crosses different kinds of races and nationalities.

[LeftishBrit]

43. Not completely; most Muslims here are Asian, but many Asians are Hindus or Sikhs

But your last statement is spot on:

'The motivation, though, is far more simple: difference. Attacking people who speak a different language, dress, and look different from what some would like to think England is.'

Religious prejudices as such are probably not as strong in the UK (at least outside Northern Ireland) as in America; but xenophobia is very strong.

[harmonicon]

49. xenophobia in the UK is crazy

Even just being a white guy with an American accent, I've gotten a lot of shit since moving to England a few years ago. When I first showed up it was especially hard to do things like get an apartment - you phone someone up and there's a pause when they hear an accent, and you're treated differently.

I guess I don't know the specific demographics, but at least here in the north the vast majority of asians are muslim. Maybe it's different in other parts.

[Posteritatis]

17. English Defence League and similar neofascist groups are trying to stir people up

They got kinetically educated yesterday after trying to do one of their Get Rid Of The Darkies marches through an immigrant section of Birmingham. Imagine my sorrow.

Also, when a British news article says "Asian," they typically mean "south Asian" - the Middle East through about Bangladesh.

[JonQ]

26. I don't think it was the EDL

the article said it was a group of black teens.

[Posteritatis]

29. Yeah, I was thinking a few steps back

Folks are going out of their way to ratchet up xenophobia in Britain in general, and it's typically against the Asian population there. Enough groups howling on that note and more people not necessarily connected to them are going to find pulling this sort of thing acceptable.

[chrisa]

4. Punks

[Quantess]

53. No sorry, you meant to call them "thugs" or "criminals"

"punks" is a fashion term.
: )

[PDJane]

5. The fact that these men are elderly

is plain old cowardice.....and a great deal of vicious stupidity. That they would do this in front of a child is doubly ignorant.

That this is young, black schoolboys suggests something going on that is even harder to fathom.

It seems the world is getting less civilized by the day.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Oh white youngsters do this sort of thing too.

But they are less likely to get reported in the Daily Mail.

In any case, everyone who does such things is scum, regardless of skin colour.

Agree about it making it even worse (if possible) to do it in front of a child.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Link updated - he died.

The police will pull out all the stops on this one to get those reponsible. They'll have friends who'll be applalled and will grass on them.

Thye're already rounding them up :

* Two youths aged 14 and 15 have appeared before Wimbledon Youth Court accused of committing grievous bodily harm with intent on Mr Haque.
* They and another boy, aged 12, are also accused of conspiracy to commit GBH and two counts of assault on victims in their 40s and 70s. Another 14-year-old has been charged over the attacks, but has yet to appear in court.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211556/Devout-Muslim-dies-savage-beating-race-hate-gang-granddaughter-three.html#ixzz0QRDDJ9P7

I think the charges will now be changed or added to.

[LeftishBrit]

8. God that's so horrible....

I'm particularly upset as it's near where I grew up. And a pensioner - a retired care worker who as such did more for this country than those fucking cowards who attacked him will EVER do in their lives.

In tears now.

[oct2010]

31. ?

The truth is many fear the backllash if aisans respond in 100 fold kind. As many here fear will happen.
Itls a shame athiestic replies are not welcome by some of the more fundie mods on the board so itls best to stop here......

[im1013]

10. Sickening. Just sickening.

:hide:

[Doctor_J]

11. Oh never mind

Sorry. I shouldn't hijack this thread of mourning with my own prejudices. Blessings to the family of the victim

[Enrique]

12. Witness to the attack

His granddaughter has been left 'very shaken and disturbed', said her father, Mr Haque's son Arfan.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FVZA_Colonel]

15. Nearly beating an old man to death in front of his three-year-old granddaughter.

What a bunch of fucking heroes...

[JonQ]

34. Don't worry

if caught they'll likely recieve a . . . short sentence, or possibly probation.

[zoff]

18. They will reap what they sow.

[Jkid]

21. This is just unforgiveable

What's even more unforgivable is that the perps were Black Britons, the same ethnic people who were discriminated in the past.

What they don't know that they will not last in prison, if they reach 21, if they're unlucky enough to be in a prison with Muslim inmates.

[MadMaddie]

22. An absolute tradgedy!

The kids that committed this crime deserve the harshest penalty. They are picking elderly people to beat and kill. I have no sympathy for their impending and hopefully long incarceration.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[winyanstaz]

24. Well I have some words....

These people that beat this man are a bunch of chickenshits, cowards, and a shame to the world.

[democrank]

25. I`m sickened by this hatred.

Absolutely sickened.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. The right-wingers know exactly what they're doing

If they can get the different working class racial and ethnic groups to hate one another, these groups are less likely to unite and demand economic justice.

They tell the different ethnic groups that their troubles are the fault of some other ethnic group, not the fault of the deindustrialization of Britain, which was engineered by white upper-class twits.

[AspenRose]

36. That's exactly right

[Joe Chi Minh]

32. What a vile, shameful irony! The Mail is always stirring up hatred against immigrants.

[LeftishBrit]

44. You are right there!

[JI7]

33. in the UK "Asian" usually refers to South Asians like indians, pakistanis etc

[JonLP24]

41. When I was in the US Army

When we deployed to Kuwait/Iraq I often heard of the area referred to as Southwest Asia, never the Middle East. I thought it was strange at first but it makes sense now.

[LeftishBrit]

45. That is correct.

E.g. we do have a fair-sized Chinese community, but they typically are referred to separately from 'Asians'.

[Nihil]

46. Part of the reason for the take-up of "Asians" was the "big label" mentality ...

... i.e., rather than note that they came from a host of different
places (e.g., India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon/Sri Lanka) the
generic "Asian" was used.

This worked for a lot of the nation, from the civil service (only one
box to tick) through to the fascists: the National Front & co could reuse
the same slogans against all "Asian immigrants" despite the different
world events (partition, independence) that caused completely different
waves of immigration from completely different geographical & cultural
regions.

[classysassy]

37. The thugs

are a disgrace to the human race.

[jonmiller74]

38. Every day, the world seems to make less sense.

It doesn't matter to those who wish to cause pain, who they attack. It is just the desire to inflict pain. They probably don't even think about what they're doing or why.

That unfortunate family becomes another statistic of mindless violence.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

39. Interesting. What did race have to do with this attack?

Seems like more of a religious attack to me. Then there are those here who don't believe that black people can be racist. That's probably a whole other discussion though.

[LeftishBrit]

42. In the UK, there is plenty of bigotry against immigrants as such.

It may be that the man was attacked because he was perceived as a 'foreigner', as well as out of religious prejudice.

It is certainly possible for black people to be racist against Asians as well as vice versa. And of course white racists are often happy to whip up prejudices and divisions between different non-white groups. For that matter, white British people are sometimes racist against other white groups - from the age-old prejudices of antisemitism and anti-Irish bigotry, to the somewhat newer one of prejudice against Polish and other East Europaean immigrants.

[T_i_B]

51. Over here anti-Pakistani and and-Muslim prejudice go hand in hand.

It's just as likely, if not more so to be racial then religious.

[HotRocks]

50. wow

That is beyond horrible, good lord.

[panzerfaust]

52. Ages of those arrested: 12, 14, 15

[Arrowhead2k1]

55. The UK is getting bad with the racism these days. Like really bad.

They've already elected Nazi sympathizers to the European parliament in some parts and the anti-immigrant rhetoric is going through the roof. This is the land of my ancestors, and it's shameful!

[Kurska]

56. Fucking sickening, race attacks are always despicable.

But can't these cowards even grow the balls to attack someone who could fight back?