Hate Crime: Three British Muslims convicted

Court convicted them for inciting hatred on grounds of sexual orientation.

LONDON: A court convicted three British Muslim men on Friday for inciting hatred on grounds of sexual orientation after distributing leaflets with an anti-homosexual theme. The leaflets, distributed outside a mosque in Derby, central England, claimed Islam called for anyone caught committing homosexuality to be “executed”. Ihjaz Ali, 42, Kabir Ahmed, 28, and Razwan Javed, 27, are the first people to be prosecuted under new legislation which came into force in March 2010. A pamphlet, called “The Death Penalty?”, quoted Islamic texts that said capital punishment was the only way to rid society of homosexuality alongside an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose. A jury at Derby Crown Court convicted the three men on the charge of distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. The men will be sentenced on February 10.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2012.