Waving a Union flag and hurling race hate abuse, lout Paul Grainger targets a mosque. The jobless 38-year-old tried to kick his way in to the Shahjalal Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre on Sceptre Street in Newcastle's West End, at 3.20am.
Inside were more than 400 Muslims praying on the holiest night of the Islamic calendar. And after their worship was disrupted, they came out to find Grainger leering at them, hurling racist abuse while waving a Union flag and St George's flag with his Staffordshire Bull Terrier in tow.
Now Grainger, of Campbell Place, Elswick, Newcastle, has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment at the city's magistrates' court. And today, his actions were condemned by religious leaders, police and anti-fascist groups.
Insp Gerry Barker, of the New Deal Police Team, in the city's West End, said: "This was a nasty incident. It was totally un-called for and there is no justification for it whatsoever. We take this very seriously because we have got an ingrained British right to worship."
Mike Hartman, of the Tyne & Wear Anti Fascist Association, said: "This completely senseless and deeply offensive attack was motivated by nothing but hatred. It shows the need for ordinary, decent people and communities to continue the fight against racism, whether it is expressed by a lone idiot like this or by organised groups."
Grainger staged his racist rampage during the month of Ramadan, on the day when Muslims gather to celebrate the time when the first part of the Holy Koran, the Islamic sacred book, was initially given by the god . Hundreds had packed the mosque from 8.30pm on and planned to pray until 6am the following day. But they were disturbed by a drunken Grainger, who tried to kick down the doors on October 19.
At his hearing, he admitted a racially-aggravated charge of causing harassment, alarm or distress and was fined a total of £180.
Clive Freemantle, prosecuting, told the court: "It's said that in the early hours of the morning on the day in question, numerous persons were at the mosque. The mosque had been full as this was one of the holiest nights in the Islamic year, a night regarded with a certain degree of sanctity and high regard. The defendant was seen waving a Union Jack flag and a St George's flag and he also had with him a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which was not on a lead [and incidentally, crapped on film - should have been done for that too].
"He was shouting racist abuse at the worshippers as they left, he waved both flags at them and one of them was upset by this so he placed a call to the police to report the incident."
The court was told Grainger was swearing at worshippers, calling them "f****** **** b*******."
Mr Freemantle added: "The officers drove up and saw the defendant standing with his dog and his flags and he was shouting abuse, waving his flags as they left the mosque. He saw the officers and started to walk away from the officers walking towards him and he turned around and shouted `you white Judas'. He was warned to stop or he would be arrested and shouted `white Judas, white Judas'."
The court was played CCTV footage of Grainger's antics.
Dressed in a blue jumper and jeans, he is seen waving his flags and shouting at those coming out of the mosque. As a police car arrives, he angrily points his finger and yells at the officers. One officer injured his leg as they struggled with Grainger.
John Foley, defending, said: "He can't remember very much about it. The bit that he can remember is that he was walking his dog and he had been drinking. He was heavily intoxicated. It isn't shown on the CCTV, but he said as he walked past the mosque, one of the people coming out of it kicked his dog. The dog was not injured but one of the people came out of the mosque and kicked it. He says he is not a racist, he's got black friends and he doesn't know where he got the flags from. He says he can only think he picked them up somewhere, he must have found them and in his anger, he raged against the people in the mosque in the way that has been described to you."
But Insp Barker added: "During Ramadan we have extra patrols because of problems we have had in the past of cars being targeted during prayer times and so on. This shift finished at 3am and lo and behold he turns up shortly after that. To me, that shows what he did was pre-planned, which makes it even worse."
Mugol Miah, 52, a mosque committee member, said: "There were more than 400 people who had gone to pray in the mosque. This was the most important night for us as this was the time that the first part of the holy Koran was given by the gods. Every Muslim believes that this is the most holy night and so everyone joined together to pray. But during the early hours one of the men heard something outside. He rang the police and then told me. I went to the window and looked out and saw the man with the Union Flag, shouting abuse and kicking the door to the mosque. The police were already there and were arresting him. Some of the worshippers had gone outside to see what had happened but they were advised to go back inside. The prayers continued and that was the end of it."
Mahmud Miah, chairman of the mosque, said: "This guy started knocking on the door and he had a Union Jack and a big dog with him. He was calling everybody names and using foul language. We don't normally get problems like this. We can only hope it doesn't happen again."
Chronicle Live
There's also a video (without sound) of this dickhead in action outside the mosque (5.6Mb) here.
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