The festival of Navratri (nine nights) celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Navaratri begins around harvest time in October, and, celebrations last for nine days. Navarati sits within the wider festival of Durga Puja, which honours the mother goddess Durga. In one retelling of the triumph of good, a demon named Mahisha, who took the form of a buffalo, threatened the gods. To meet this threat, the gods pleaded with Durga to do what they could not – kill the demon Mahisha. Bestowed with the weapons and strength of the gods, including Shiva’s trident, Vishnu’s disc, Yama’s iron rod, and Indra’s thunderbolt, Durga took on this mission. But it did not prove an easy victory. For the demon Mahisha’s blood created new demons to attack Durga. A prolonged battle ended with the demon’s decapitation. Another popular story in northern India concerns the slaying of the ten-headed demon King Ravana. In a final and epic battle with Rama, who pursued Ravana in his chariot. Rama’s golden arrows, which transformed into serpents as they reached the demon King. The arrows had decapitated Ravana’s many heads but they regrew in an instant. This prolonged the conflict for many nights as Rama fired [...]
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Mona Chalabi’s BBC documentary titled, ‘Is Britain Racist‘, was a fascinating insight into prejudice and the ways that different races and faith groups are affected by racism and prejudice. We had the pleasure of advising the producers in sending a Niqab wearing female to Dudley, to see what reactions this would elicit, if she walked on
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Continue ReadingHaving just commented on the serious assault of an Afghan taxi driver over the weekend, we were notified of another incident involving a Rotherham based taxi driver. On Sunday morning at around 2:30 am a Rotherham based taxi driver of Pakistani heritage stopped off to drop off a passenger and was in a stationary position when
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Nick Cohen highlights some of the issues that colleagues within Tell MAMA have been grappling with for some time. Apart from being the target of far right campaigns, Tell MAMA has also become the target of groups purporting to tackle Islamophobia, solely because Tell MAMA believes that equality means equality for all. Cohen mentions the following
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This morning, a taxi driver of Aghan heritage was found in the street with head injuries after suffering a serious assault. South Yorkshire Police were called to the scene and the taxi driver was later admitted to hospital and as part of a routine procedure, was induced into a coma. The victim is responding to
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Why Facebook must do more to challenge anti-Muslim hate posts, by Rima Amin “Love for All, Hatred for None” is the motto carried by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. A motto that has been tested in recent days after a surge of hateful comments towards Muslims on social media following a fire at the Baitul Futuh mosque
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The family of murdered Iranian-American engineering student Shayan Mazroei, 22, want authorities to consider it a hate crime. Craig Tanber, a white supremacist gang member allegedly stabbed Mazroei outside a California bar on September 7. Given his gang links and ideology, the family’s attorney Neama Rahmani wants a closer look at Taber’s motive. “Our clients lost their only child to a heinous act of racism and violence,” said Neama Rahmani of West Coast Trial Lawyers, the law firm representing the Mazroei family. “We will not rest until we obtain justice against those responsible for Shayan’s tragic death.” Witnesses claim that the suspect’s girlfriend described Mazroei as a ‘terrorist’ and said “f—ing Iranians” before Tanber attacked him. Investigators are not convinced that race was a motivating factor. “It’s not even close to have enough evidence to charge it as a hate crime. It is a murder, it is charged as a murder,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin. Shayan’s mother Shahzad Mazroei could not hide her tears at a recent press conference. A source told the New York Daily News that she had flown back from Iran after learning of his murder. She has lost her son, a promising student [...]
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Continue ReadingThe Tell MAMA project will hold a free event on October 15 to discuss how communities and police forces can respond to anti-Muslim hate crimes. This discussion coincides with National Hate Crime Week, which runs between October 10 and 17. So why do we need this awareness week? Many British Muslims consider anti-Muslim abuse too
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Continue ReadingFour men accused of a faith-based hate crime will appear at York Crown Court on October 9 after a Christian teenager was allegedly the victim of four incidents that took place between July 2014 and May 2015. The York Press detailed how Andrew Addison, 30, and three others, are alleged to have filmed themselves assaulting the victim with a lit aerosol, taping a dummy to his mouth as he was bound to a chair, sending him a threatening message on Facebook, and binding the young churchgoer to a crucifix in early 2015. Christopher Jackson, 21, Alex Puchir, 37, and Joseph Richard Rose, 21, are charged alongside Addison with a religiously-aggravated assault in Hull. At an earlier court appearance, at York Magistrates Court, the prosecution alleged that the four accused men knew the victim was a committed Christian. Rose also faces additional charges relating to allegations of sending him a threatening message over Snapchat. Lee-Anne Robins-Hicks, defending the accused, indicated they would plead not-guilty.
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Continue ReadingDavid Jones (@DavidJo52951945), has over 23,000 Twitter followers and regards himself as a UKIP supporter. A regular tweeter, he has built up a following on the back of his anti-migration and anti-EU tweets. The description on his avatar on Twitter says: “UK government have abandoned Brits. We need to exit EU, ECHR, stop all immigration
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