Muslim graves vandalised in Manchester

I've just come across this on the muslim news website Why wasn't this published in the media?


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Muslim graves vandalised in Manchester

By Elham Asaad Buaras

Twenty Muslim graves were vandalised in a Manchester cemetery, following a BNP campaign against a local Islamic centre. Vandals targeted the Southern Cemetery on Barlow Moor Road, South Manchester on October 1.

Up to 20 gravestones had been pushed over and a number had broken.

Police said the attack is being treated as racially motivated as only Muslim graves were targeted.

One black marble headstone which reads “A beloved husband and father Abdul Rahman Dar” was dislodged. “I came to visit my father’s grave. I was shocked to find the stone had been pushed over. I cannot understand why people would do such a thing. I am very upset,” Habib Dar told The Muslim News.

In a statement to The Muslim News Det Con Rob Southern said, “This is the worst sort of vandalism imaginable. The graves of your loved ones should be a place where they can rest peacefully and that is absolutely sacrosanct.

“The families of those whose graves have been vandalised will be rightly traumatised and deeply upset. If we do catch the people who committed these atrocious acts, then they should be made to see the grief and pain they have caused.

“Sadly, we are treating this as a hate crime as only the Muslim section of gravestones were attacked. This sort of mindless, racist behaviour must be utterly condemned and I’m sure the whole community will be outraged.”

Unite against Fascism (UAF) believes the attackers were motivated by a British National Party (BNP) campaign against the Dar-ul-Ulum Qadria Jilania Islamic Centre.

BNP officials described the conversion of St John the Apostle and Evangelist church in St Johns Road Longsight Manchester into an Islamic centre as the, “Bloodless genocide and ethnic cleansing of the British people and culture.”

The BNP also posted a photograph of a broken Christian headstone on their website and said the, “Christian British graves, the only remnant of the now ethnically cleansed British people in the area, are obviously offensive to the Muslim colonisers, who have brought in the earthmoving machine to smash up the gravestones which are being literally crushed to rubble.”

The local council said the unidentified gravestones, was not part of the graveyard, which has not been used since 1966, but had been moved at some point to form pathways through a church garden, before being covered over.

The developers immediately ordered all work to stop. Council planning officers are now investigating.

The Islamic Centre’s trustee, Arshad Nawaz, said no grave has been intentionally destroyed. He said £50,000 had been spent to repair the church, which had become dilapidated over the years. The graves and gravestones had been “carefully preserved”, he added.

“We have never and will never intentionally disrespect or desecrate any grave regardless of its age and regardless of the caste creed or religion of the deceased.”

Longsight Councillor Maryam Khan said, “It doesn’t matter what religion you are, the dead need to be respected at all costs and my understanding is that that’s exactly what they are doing.

“Now the stones have been uncovered they’ve stopped work to find out what exactly they are. As far as I’m concerned they’ve not acted in any way that should cause offence.”

http://muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=4310