Odense: Burglary campaign against ethnic Danes

Via JihadWatch (Translated from B.T., Danish):

(…)

A burglary campaign against ethnic Danes has spread in the troubled district in the recent months.

– There is a kind of racism out there, where we find that more and more Danes are chased out of the area. It happens as a result of a big increase in burglaries. There have been approximately 150 burglaries the last four months. What is striking is that nine out of ten burglaries are now directed against ethnic Danes, a cop at Funen Police headquarters explains. The cop does not want us to publish his name for fear of losing his job. His name is known by the editors. The officer believes that someone is trying to cleanse the area from the remaining Danes.

(source)

Netherlands: Prison sentence for horse-meat halal fraud

Via BN/DeStem (Dutch):

A 61 year old from Breda was sentenced to a year in jail (three months suspended) for halal meat fraud. The man and his accomplices sold horse meat from South America as Dutch halal-slaughtered meat.

In 2007 and 2008 the man bought horse meat and packed it like beef. He then bought certificates which said the meat was halal-slaughtered. The certificates were then forged to change the weight of the meat. The meat was sold to French supermarkets.

The prosecution wanted 1.5 years. The court sentenced him to less since there was no evidence that people suffered health problems from the meat. An accomplice, a 53 year old from Oosterhout, got 160 hours of community service. The company was fined 20,000 euro.

Berlin: Syrian opposition activist attacked in his home

Via AFP:

A Berlin local politician active in the Syrian opposition was attacked by two men in his home, police said Tuesday, in a case the German foreign ministry said it was following closely.

The Greens party, which the victim Ferhad Ahma represents on a Berlin district council, suspected the Syrian secret services were behind the assault early Monday, said its chief whip in the national parliament, Volker Beck.

Ahma suffered serious bruises and other wounds in the attack but declined medical treatment, police said.

The Greens said in a statement that two men claiming to be policemen arrived at Ahma’s flat at around 2:00 am and when he opened the door, began beating him with metal bars and clubs.

The party said the men’s Arab appearance as well as the fact that Ahma had been threatened before led it to conclude the attackers were linked to the regime in Damascus.

(source)

Oslo: Immigrant families account for 70% of domestic abuse cases

Via Nettavisen (h/t Jan Simonsen, Norwegian)

Norwegian news-site Nettavisen wanted to write about the increase in crime and domestic violence on Christmas, but according to Stein Erik Olsen, domestic violence coordinator for the Oslo police, both are myths.

“70% of these cases are of families of non-Norwegian background. The cultures we speak of drink little alcohol and don’t celebrate Christmas,” Stein Erik Olsen told Nettavisen. “What we’ve seen in Stovner (borough) is that the number of cases goes down during Ramadan.”

He didn’t want to speculate why the number of domestic violence cases among Muslims decreases during Ramadan.

For the past decade the Norwegian police have focused on domestic violence, and every police district has its own domestic violence coordinator.

Olsen says one of the challenges with other cultures is that they have their own laws and a different attitude towards women than what is accepted in Norwegian society.

“In the worst of our cases it’s quite extreme who the culture rules the family, and how laws and regulations different than the Norwegian ones apply. But we have more information about these cases and it’s no longer the case that all women from these cultures accept it. For many of them it’s incredibly tough to report it. To speak with us likely means that they must break off with people who are their only anchor in a foreign country,” says Olsen.

Belgium: Shooter didn’t feel Moroccan, wasn’t Muslim

Via the New York Times:

Belgians sought to make sense on Wednesday of a spasm of killing by a man with a history of trouble with weapons and drugs who unleashed his attack near a Christmas market at a historic square, bringing random death to a familiar scene of European holiday bustle.

(…)

“He didn’t feel at all Moroccan,” one lawyer said, adding that he “didn’t speak a word of Arabic and wasn’t a Muslim,” and that “he felt Belgian.” At other points, the interview quoted the lawyers as saying that he “was crazy about weapons, but as a collector”; “he felt that he’d not had much luck in life”; he “thought he’d been unfairly treated by the justice system.”

One said his action was that of “a tormented soul who was at the end of his tether, cut off from the justice system and from society.”

(source)

See also here for more on Amrani’s history.

Florence: Gunman shoots Senegalese street vendors dead

This story got less attention yesterday than the Liege attack. This attack was anti-immigrant, but the victims are apparently Muslim, and a Senegalese imam will participate in today’s memorial ceremony.

Via the Guardian:

A lone gunman with extreme rightwing sympathies has gone on a shooting spree in Florence, killing two Senegalese street vendors and wounding three others before killing himself.

Gianluca Casseri, 50, an accountant, first shot dead two vendors and wounded a third with a .357 Magnum at the crowded Piazza Dalmazia street market on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday morning.

He then fled in a car after threatening to shoot a stall holder who attempted to stop him, reappearing later in the day at the central San Lorenzo market where he fired at two African vendors, wounding both.

Police officers found Casseri back in his car in the car park of the market, where they fired warning shots before he reportedly shot himself dead.

(source)

Belgium: Four family members convicted of ‘honor’ murder

Via Knack (Dutch):

On Friday the Court of Assize of Henegouwen convicted the four members of the Pakistani Sheikh family of the murder of Sadia Sheikh (22).

Tariq Sheikh, Sadia’s father, and her brother Mudusar were convicted by the jury,with aggravating circumstances since it was an honor murder and an attempted forced marriage. Parveen, Sadia’s mother, and her sister Sariya, were also convicted of murder, with aggravating circumstances of honor murder, but were acquitted of the charges of attempted forced marriage.

The jury convicted the four family members after three weeks of debates in court. Sadia was a senior of law at the Charleroi university college. She was murdered on October 22, 2007 in the Lodelinsart section of the city.

Mudusar’s conviction was based on his confession, and due to the fact that he committed the murder in order to restore the family’s honor, which had been violated by his sister who, as a woman, refused to submit.

Regarding father Tariq Sheikh there were various issues to his detriment, including the speedy conclusion of the forced marriage with a cousin in Pakistan via webcam and the administrative steps he took to officialize the marriage.

Sariya was convicted due to ballistic analysis which linked her to the incident. The mother stated in her testimony that she preferred her daughter die rather than marry a non-Muslim.

During the court case the prosecution and civil parties who had joined the suit, the Institute for Equality of Men and Women and the Union of Independent Health Services, tried to show that every member of the family played a significant role in Sadia’s murder.

The defense claimed that the investigation was blemished by the media attention to the crime. The family’s lawyers also claimed that, except for Mudusar, there was enough doubt against conviction.

UK: Stoke-on-Trent mosque arsonists jailed

Via the BBC:

Two men have each been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of deliberately setting fire to a Stoke-on-Trent mosque.

Ex-soldier Simon Beech, 23, and Garreth Foster, 29, both from Stoke, were found guilty of setting fire to Hanley’s Regent Road mosque on 3 December.

The pair had denied committing arson with intent to endanger life.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard it was in revenge for Muslim extremists burning poppies on Armistice Day.

(source)

Switzerland: Tunisian asylum seekers face image problem

Via swissinfo:

Newly arrived Tunisian asylum seekers have been dubbed criminals in recent press reports and described as “the worst we have had to deal with” by asylum centre staff.

But has this group of Tunisians really earned a reputation as troublemakers and if so, what is going wrong?

(source)

UK: Race variation in jail sentences, study suggests

Via the Guardian:

Offenders from ethnic minorities are more likely than their white counterparts to be sentenced to prison for certain categories of crimes, according to an analysis of more than one million court records.

The study, carried out by the Guardian, found black offenders were 44% more likely than white offenders to be sentenced to prison for driving offences, 38% more likely to be imprisoned for public disorder or possession of a weapon and 27% more likely for drugs possession.

Asian offenders were 41% more likely to be sent to prison for drugs offences than their white counterparts and 19% more likely to go to jail for shoplifting.

The findings, which accord with a history of academic research into disparities, suggest wider variations in sentencing than in some previous studies and also show variation between courts.

(source)