Posted on 10/02/2006 1:03:08 PM PDT by Republicain
A teenager was stabbed when hundreds of people became involved in a battle on the streets of Preston. Trouble centred on the Jamea Masjid mosque in Clarendon Street, Avenham, for more than four hours last night (Sunday) and led to a massive policing operation.
Preston's police chief said the problems were triggered by local youths throwing stones at cars belonging to people attending the mosque.
This sparked a response from around 200 people inside the mosque who came out to defend those under attack.
It resulted in one 16-year-old Asian youth being stabbed in the arm, but ambulance crews were turned back as the police felt it was too dangerous for them to enter the scene.
Fighting continued into the early hours and led to police requiring back-up from officers as far away as Lancaster and Burnley.
Chief Supt Mike Barton, divisional commander for the area, said more than 100 officers were deployed and he was treating the incident as race-related.
He said: "Some people I spoke to at the mosque insisted it wasn't racial but I think some people at the mosque believe it was.
"Until we actually find the offenders and speak to them, and because some people believe it to be racial, then that's how we'll treat it."
Insp Simon Hayes, force incident manager for Lancashire Police, described the incident as "community tension" with youths on the streets in a "confrontational mood".
He said: "As a result of that, there was a high-level policing operation to reassure the public and disperse these groups.
"There was no major disorder or serious incident."
Ilyas Desail, of the Jamea mosque on Clarendon Street, said: "It is not a mosque issue, it is a community issue.
"It is the month of Ramadan and that is the only reason the mosque has been brought into this.
"We are all upset by this, everyone is upset. No one is going to be happy with the tarnishing of such great efforts we have made in Preston in the past 40 years."
A mother-of-three, 33, from Clarendon Street, said: "It's getting ridiculous and for the past two nights there's been fighting."
Anyone who follows the link will see that I was pointing out you have a Muslim terrorist problem too. Are you seriously going to deny you have one?
Really, are you going to go out on that incredible limb and say so?
I suggest you read this before you reply.
Ivan
That's ridiculous. 9-11 was done by clever Lutherans who framed the hapless Muslims.
That said, the top cop is an idiot. But then again, some cities in the States are guilty of being just as stupid.
Regards, Ivan
I apologized for taking the thread off-topic on my first post if you remember. It's not my fault it set off some of our friends from across the pond. Do you have something more to say about the situation in Preston? I'd certainly be interested in hearing.
This Conservative Brit. lives in California and has to take it from all sides on this forum.
BTW You work in the theater, so instead of crying at billboards, why don't you get a grip.
A little Brit. humor for you.
FRegards,
Oh, Dr., don't mention my tears! It'll start up the flame war all over again. Thanks for your comments, I know how many wonderful people there are in Great Britain.
Ivan,
First of all, I'm happy to have you here. The more conservative Brits we can get here as Freepers the better!
My husband is English. We visited my mum in law back in May. Trust me, in all of my visits to your country (which I do love a lot) I came across a lot of anti-Americanism. Starting with the cab driver from Gatwick Airport railing on about how he disliked Americans (he had only spoke to my husband at that point, who has not lost his accent. ;) )
We encountered it in restaurants as well, with our friends over there ending their business relationship with one of the restaurants because of their rudeness towards our party. (It had never happened to them or any of their other guests before.) And of course, all of the anti-Bush jibes we had to listen to. Which is rude where I come from, btw.
Miss M does have a point. Your tourism depends a lot on our American dollars, and any uneducated person seeing that billboard may make the assumption and say "never again". Which I think is a reasonable assumption.
I'll not go back there again myself, and that makes me sad. My mum in law complains about all of the anti-Americanism as well.
We count you all as friends, and Brits are treated over here very warmly as close friends. Even when they come over and criticize the way we do things (What cheek!, lol)
And both of our countries need to come together, because we need each other to win the war against Islamofascism.
What is happening, is exactly what al-Qaida wants. And we're falling for it, hook, line, and sinker.
Regards,
VRCWAgent
I am saying that you have a much worse problem than we do with homegrown Muslim terrorists and to support my contention I cited you to the book Londonistan by Melanie Phillips. I think the difference between the relative dangers posed by homegrown Islamic extremists in our two countries can be traced to the greater extent to which the welfare state and its firstborn child, multiculturalism, has infected Britain.
What do you think of the projections that mainland Europe will be majority Muslim in a few decades?
And by "uneducated", I wasn't referring to you, ma'am.
I mean the average Joe and Jane USA who aren't Freepers or seek out what is going on. ;)
Yes. I have the agenda of an American. For example, I don't appreciate seeing a St. George's Cross flying alone in a yard in my area any more than I would appreciate seeing a Mexican flag flying by itself in my country.
Contrary to Deputy Secretary-General Brown's desire that our government censor opinions disagreeing with the UN from being published in our country, we will publish information as we wish. That includes public information about Brown, his comments and his country of origin.
This is the USA. The USA is not part of any empire. We loathe "empire" as much as we loathe communism or any other centralized form of government. You continue to put your trademark condescending rhetoric on display, and you have a small cheering section of Americans of European loyalty against their own. But you will not dictate as to what we will do here.
I would read American Jihad if I were you before making such pronouncements. Secondly, Melanie Philips, to put it bluntly, is on a par with Pat Buchanan in terms of reliability, who is her nearest American equivalent.
Ivan
It'll take a lot longer than that. But I get tired of correcting the mistaken impression that somehow there are 59 million Muslims and 1 million Englishmen in Britain - let alone try to talk about the continent.
Of course there is an assumption behind this - that if birth rates are in decline, they'll continue to decline.
Regards, Ivan
I don't need a geography lesson -- I'm old school.
I sent you that query because you identified yourself as a Brit. I was just asking for your opinion.
No reason to get so defensive.
I guess we can start with dentistry and work our way up.
Given that Phillips is a pretty fierce critic of anti-semitism I think you might want to reconsider the comparison to Pat Buchanan.
You are obviously, entirely correct. I was watching the boob tube only today, prior to coming on line at 22:00. There was nowt on the TV news. Mustn't disturb the explosives.
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