Antiterrorism Cyber Attack on British railway wifis reveals terror attacks across Europe

 

I used the term antiterrorism rather than Islamophobic for one reason. Islamophobic implies an unrealistic fear of anything Islam. It is not a fear of Islam that drive the far-right, but a fear of terrorism since 99% of all terrorists are Islamic.

Fear of Islamic terrorism is surely justified for anyone who knows anything about Islamic history or current Islamic ideology. The unwillingness of the government or the media to address those fears is what drives the far-right to take action. But they are too blind to see the truth.

UK: Man arrested for ‘Islamophobic cyberattack’

on wifi at major railway stations

Sep 28, 2024 9:00 am By Robert Spencer

You can see how compromised, cowardly and pusillanimous the British media is from the fact that the Manchester Evening News blurred out the message so that our delicate eyes would not be blinded by the sight of “Islamophobia.” Even worse, the blurred-out portion seems to be “information that referred to terror attacks.” You see, even the smallest hint that Islam has anything to do with terrorism will now bring the full weight of British government and law enforcement down upon you. Islamic jihadists can cheerfully avow that they’re doing it all for Islam, but anyone else who dares to notice does so at the risk of his freedom and livelihood.

Man arrested after ‘Islamophobic cyberattack’ on wifi at major railway stations

by Alex Ross and Barney Davis, Independent, September 26, 2024:

A man has been arrested after passengers saw an Islamophobic message flash up when they tried to use the free wifi at some of the biggest railway stations in the country.

British Transport Police said the suspect is an employee of Global Reach Technology, which provides some wifi services to Network Rail.

He has been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and offences under the Malicious Communications Act 1988. No personal data is known to have been affected, the police added.

Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and 10 stations in London were all affected by the suspected cyberattack on Wednesday evening.

Passengers logging on to the wifi at the stations reported seeing a webpage that was titled “We love you, Europe”. Underneath it was information that referred to terror attacks.

The wifi system was quickly taken offline and police were called in to investigate.

A spokesperson for British Transport Police said: “We received reports at around 5.03pm yesterday of a cyberattack displaying Islamophobic messaging on some Network Rail wifi services.”

Officers said they were working with Network Rail to investigate the Islamophobic cybersecurity incident “at pace”….

Euronews reports that a 17 year old was arrested and then released.

 

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Manchester Piccadilly and other UK stations targeted with terrorism message in Wi-Fi

‘cyber security incident'

by James Holt, Manchester Evening News, September 25, 2024:

The Wi-Fi at Manchester Piccadilly was hacked in a ‘cyber security incident’ on Wednesday night (September 25). An investigation has been launched after the Wi-Fi provided at all 20 stations managed by Network Rail were targeted.

Users attempting to log on to the service were met with a webpage, which has been seen by the Manchester Evening News. Headlined ‘We love you, Europe,’ the page contains information about terror incidents in the UK and abroad and appears to have an anti-Islamic message.

The cyber incident hit Manchester Piccadilly station, among others across the UK, with 11 targeted in London, including Euston and Victoria.

Other stations hit by the hack are Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central, Leeds City, Liverpool Lime Street, Bristol Temple Meads, Edinburgh Waverley, Reading, Guildford.

The Manchester Evening News has been told British Transport Police are also investigating the issue. Network Rail confirmed the Wi-Fi services were suspended as enquiries take place….

Islam - Current Day - Some Chibok Girls Escape; Bangladeshi MP - 4 Years for Trafficking; Syrian Woman Kills Husband of 35 Years; Greek AB Calls Islam What it is; Sharia Gangs in Austria

..

More 'Chibok Girls' escape Boko Haram in Nigeria, parents say

By Clyde Hughes

Nearly 300 schoolgirls were abducted from Chibok, Nigeria, in 2014. Parents in a support group say more have escaped from the Boko Haram militant group. File Photo by EPA

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Several of the missing "Chibok Girls" who were abducted in Nigeria several years ago have escaped African militant group Boko Haram, some of their parents say.

Emmanuel Ogebe and Lawal Zannah, members of the Chibok Parents Association, said some of the more than 100 girls still missing after the 2014 mass kidnapping have fled from their captors.

They didn't say exactly how many had escaped from the terrorist group.

"Information currently available to us indicates that there are other escapees with the army whom parents are anxiously waiting to identify," Ogebe said.

Boko Haram raided a boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria, in 2014 and abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls. The mass abduction prompted global outrage and widespread social media campaigns condemning the kidnappings and demanding the girls' return.

Some girls escaped immediately and others were released as part of a deal with the Nigerian government in 2016. Dozens more were freed in a prisoner exchange in 2017.

Officials had estimated that about 112 of the Chibok girls were still missing.

"We heard that some of our girls have escaped from the forest, but we are yet to get the detail about their number," Zannah said.

Boko Haram has fought the Nigerian government since 2009 and has also spread into nearby Niger, Chad and Cameroon. It pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group in 2015.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and several commanders broke away from the group in 2016, citing ideological differences, to form their own militant faction.

Search this blog for 'Chibok' for many more stories, none of which are very encouraging.

Kuwait: Bangladeshi MP gets 4 years in jail, fined KD1.9m

for human trafficking

..

2 Kuwaiti officials handed down same sentence and ordered to be dismissed from job

Published:  January 29, 2021 16:44

Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent, Gulf News

  

Cairo: A Kuwaiti criminal court has sentenced a Bangladeshi lawmaker to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of KD1.9 million on charges of human trafficking and bribery in a high-profile case, local media reported.

The lawmaker, named in the media as Mohammed Shahid Islam, was charged with receiving money from dozens of workers in return for bringing them in from Bangladesh to Kuwait through a company he managed with illegal assistance from Kuwaiti officials charged in the case.

He has reportedly amassed KD5 million worth of assets in the Gulf country.

The court also sentenced Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Mazen Al Jarrah; Hassan Al Khedr, a manpower director; and ex-parliamentarian Nawaf Al Muteiri to four years in prison each in the same case. Both officials were charged with receiving bribes in return for illegally facilitating the Bangladeshi lawmaker’s transactions.

The court ordered Al Jarrah and Al Muteiri to pay a fine of KD1.9 million each while it fined Al Khedr KD180,000. The court ordered Al Jarrah and Al Khedr be dismissed from their government jobs.

A fugitive Syrian man and a Bangladeshi defendant were also handed down three years in jail each and ordered their deportation from Kuwait after serving the sentencing.

Meanwhile, sitting MP Saadoun Hamad and ex-lawmaker Salah Khurshed were acquitted of charges of influence peddling and receiving bribery from the Bangladeshi defendant.

All the rulings can be appealed.

During the court hearings, the defendants had denied charges of human trafficking, bribery and power abuse.

Al Qabas newspaper quoted an unnamed source close to investigations as saying that the defendants are still connected to a separate case of money laundering that prosecutors are still investigating.

Syria: Woman kills husband after 35 years of marriage

Woman claims she was humiliated, beaten and mistreated for many years

Published:  January 29, 2021 15:34

Tawfiq Nasrallah, Senior News Editor, Gulf News

  

Dubai: A Syrian woman killed her husband with a razor blade after allegedly being mistreated for 35 years, local media reported.

According to the Syrian Minister of Interior, the woman has been arrested after being found guilty of intentionally killing her husband, who is in his 70s.

While being interrogated she tried to fabricate stories about the incident in order to mislead the police, but eventually admitted to killing her husband after 35 years of unhappy marriage during which she claimed she was humiliated, beaten and mistreated.

On the day of the incident, the woman said she slashed her husband with a razor in his hand and kept slashing him until she reached his neck.

After the victim fell to the ground, the perpetrator went to spend a night with her relatives to prove that she was outside the house. She then returned home as if nothing had happened in an attempt to hide her crime and claimed that her husband had committed suicide.

It may have been a planned murder, but it certainly wasn't a well-planned murder. At least she doesn't have to clean up the bloody mess.

Greek Archbishop Tells the Truth About Islam, Muslim Leaders Enraged

..

Noticing the obvious is forbidden

Thu Jan 28, 2021

Robert Spencer, Front Page Mag

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and all Greece touched off a firestorm in mid-January when he dared to note, according to the Orthodox Times, that “Islam was not a religion but a political party.” He added: “They are the people of war.” In response, Muslim leaders the world over have rained down condemnations upon the archbishop. He spoke inaccurately when he said that Islam was not a religion at all, but proof that he was wrong about Islam having a political aspect has not been forthcoming.

Muslims in Greece were outraged. The Western Thrace Turkish Minority Consultation Council (BTTADK) declared: “We condemn the statement of the Archbishop of Greece, Mr. Ieronimos….We hope a more peaceful language to be used instead of anti-Islamic discourse in such difficult times of pandemic.” The Xanthi Turkish Union added that Ieronymos’ words were an “Islamophobic attack” and even a “hate crime.” It thundered: “The fact that these statements, filled with insults, came from the number one name in the Greek church increases the gravity of the situation. We see this move as one of the typical examples of the rising Islamophobia and xenophobia in Greece in recent years.”

For its part, the Western Thrace Imam-hatip Schools Graduates and Members Association (BIHLIMDER) asserted that the archbishop was displaying “ambition and jealousy,” and stated: “We are leaving the examination of the psychological state of this person, who uses words that even the most ordinary people wouldn’t use, to the experts. We are condemning such a hostile attitude.” Ahmet Ibram, deputy head of the province of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, said fancifully: “One of Islam’s basic beliefs is to have life based on peace between religions. It can never be accepted to have grudge and hostility against other religions’ members.”

What planet has he been on for the last 1400 years?

The Turkish Foreign Ministry also issued a statement: “These provocative expressions of Archbishop Ieronimos, which incite the society to hostility and violence against Islam, also show the frightening level Islamophobia has reached. Such malign ideas are also responsible for the increase of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia in Europe.”

Anyone with half a brain knows that Islamophobia and xenophobia (particularly Antisemitism) is directly proportional to the increase in Muslims in Europe. Consider what Muslim migrants have contributed to European countries in the past half a dozen years - criminal gangs, drug gangs, thousands of rapes and gang rapes of young European girls, no-go zones, burning cars, etc., etc. 

The fact that the Turkish Foreign Ministry would attack the Archbishop of Athens for abetting “the increase of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia in Europe” confirms that the concept of “Islamophobia” is an illegitimate conflation of two distinct phenomena: crimes against innocent Muslims, which are never justified, and honest analysis of the motivating ideology of jihad terror, which is always necessary. Archbishop Ieronymos pointed out that Islam was political and expansionist, which its scripture, doctrine, and history show it to be.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry knows that Archbishop Ieronymos is right. In January 2018, as Turkish troops launched a military operation in Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), 90,000 mosques in Turkey prayed the Qur’an’s “Conquest” sura, sura 48, which calls upon Muslims to be “ruthless against unbelievers.” Why did they do that, unless they assumed that their military action had an Islamic aspect? And in November 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Our God commands us to be violent towards the kuffar (infidels). Who are we? The ummah [nation] of Mohammed. So [God] also commands us to be merciful to each other. So we will be merciful to each other. And we will be violent to the kuffar. Like in Syria.”

Archbishop Ieronymos said: “Islam, its people, is not a religion but a political party and are the people of war…They are the people who seek expansion, that is the characteristic of Islam.” Erdogan proved him right.

Nonetheless, all this led the unnerved Archdiocese of Athens to issue a clarification, claiming that Archbishop Ieronymos was “meaning nothing more than the distortion of the Muslim religion itself by a handful of extreme fundamentalists, who wreak death and destruction all over the world. These are exactly the people the Archbishop was referring to, that is, people who instrumentalize Islam and turn it into a deadly weapon against all those who have a different view from that of ‘unbelievers,’ even that of believers.”

Except it is not a handful - they are numbered in the hundreds of millions. And those who are not radicalized can be radicalized in a New York minute.

It is understandable that the archdiocese would release this clarification in light of all these denunciations of the archbishop. The archdiocese doesn’t want any violence from Muslims who believe that perceived insults to their faith should be requited with violent attacks, after the pattern of the prophet of Islam himself. But that proves the archbishop’s point yet again.

Austria: Muslim gang of Sharia enforcers threatens to behead children

JAN 30, 2021 4:00 PM

BY ROBERT SPENCER2 COMMENTS

“When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks…” (Qur’an 47:4)

“The moral guardian gang threatened children with beheading,” translated from “Sittenwächter-Bande drohte Kindern mit Enthauptung,” by Christoph Budin, Kronen Zeitung, January 24, 2021:

The notorious moral guardian gang of devout Muslim Chechens does not shy away from the brutal extortion of protection money. A father of two was threatened in Vienna with the beheading of his sons – police protection for the family and handcuffs for four young suspects!

The Caucasus gang – among them mostly recognized or tolerated war refugees – had already made headlines several times in the federal capital and Linz. Their compatriot women always had to wear headscarves. And if their behavior was too “Western” or, in their eyes, their values ​​did not correspond (photos in swimwear or meetings with non-Chechen men were sufficient), the victims and their families were severely threatened and persecuted.

“Take your sons head off”

Now apparently blackmail has been added to the long criminal list of arms trafficking, imprisonment, grievous bodily harm, car theft and burglary. Because four young Chechens between the ages of 21 and 25, who are apparently part of the large group, are said to have scared a father in Vienna via WhatsApp.

They know where he works, where his family lives and where his two children go to school. If he doesn’t pay 5000 euros, then, according to the gloomy message in bad German, they will “take your sons’ heads off”.

The blackmailers were also so cheeky as to pretend to be protectors (“solve the problem”) and to demand money again. While the threatened family was under police protection, the quartet was arrested by the WEGA.

War on Christianity: Tanya Granic Allen Strikes Back

Last week, Tanya Granic Allen was barred from running for Ontario MLA in the June election by Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford, apparently for things she said years ago that were taken out of context and blown out of proportion by the liberal media in Canada.

I appreciate the National Post giving Granic Allen a place to air her side of the story. I am disappointed in Doug Ford and the PC party of Ontario kowtowing to the liberal media which warmly embraces the extreme left policies of Kathleen Wynne.

Tanya Granic Allen: I've been slandered.

It's time to set the facts straight

The accusation by the Liberals and the press that I am somehow against the dignity and human rights of LGBT+ people is a lie

Special to National Post

A lot has been said about me in the media in the past few weeks. In these stories, quotes were taken out of context and slanderous allegations made.

I wanted to explain my position weeks ago. I was under strict instructions, however, from Doug Ford’s team to be quiet and let them handle it. I obliged. I was a “team player.” I didn’t speak with the mainstream media.

That was a mistake. Ford’s team did nothing to help me — indeed, they cast me aside. So I’ll speak now, and set the facts straight.

I am a daughter of immigrants: my mother is from Malta, my father is from Croatia. Croatia was ruled by the Yugoslav Communists for generations, people of all faiths (Croatia has a massive Catholic majority) were persecuted. As in all Marxist regimes, it was official policy to attack the traditional family and the bond between parents and children. The country liberated itself in the 1990s after a bloody war. My family experienced much of this upheaval; some were killed.

Ontario PC supporters, including those protesting the ejection of candidate Tanya Granic Allen from the PC list of candidates, gather in Toronto ahead of the first televised Ontario election leaders debate on May 7, 2018. Chris Young/CP

In 2014, while eight months pregnant (and on medication with a serious related illness) I spoke at a Catholic Croatian youth conference, at a Croatian Catholic Church in Ontario. I expressed my shock (“vomit in disbelief” was the emotive phrase I used) that the then-government of Croatia, a land only recently free, was embracing a policy of compulsory sex-ed and promotion of the doctrine of gay marriage on the children. My comment of sickened disbelief was not aimed at gay marriage per se, but at the fact that so many lives had been lost to secure our freedom of religion, only to have new oppressors emerge some 20 years later.

As a practicing Catholic, I support the teachings of the Catholic Church, including the traditional definition of marriage. I support that teaching,and I also believe in the dignity of all individuals. I am also a proud Canadian, and I obey our laws, even those I disagree with. In my campaign for Ontario PC leader, and in Mississauga Centre, not once did I comment on the issue of same-sex marriage. That is a long-settled federal issue, not a provincial one.

As a practicing Catholic, I support the teachings of the Catholic Church, including the traditional definition of marriage

   

The accusation by the Liberals and the press that I am somehow against the dignity and human rights of LGBT+ people — or to use the popular term, “homophobic” — is a lie. Furthermore, it is a slur against the Catholic faith and, indeed, against people of all faiths who hold their religious values dear, but who are also responsible citizens of a free and democratic and tolerant Canada.

In 2013, Quebec introduced the Charter of Values, which sought to limit these freedoms by restricting religious expression from the public square. At the time, I criticized Quebec for its radical, anti-religious secularism; for trying to ban the turban, the cross, the yarmulke, the hijab, and, yes, face veils like the niqab and the burka.

At the time, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog in an attempt to expose their discrimination against freedom of religion. Even though I take issue with the niqab and the burka, I also support freedom of expression and freedom of religion. If a woman in Canada, of her own free will, wants to wear such garments, then it is her right to do so. Of course, my concerns with the burka and niqab, despite my overall defence of religious liberty, were twisted by the Liberals and the Toronto Star into an accusation that I was “Islamophobic.”

I am not against sexual education and believe it has a place,

but not Wynne’s radical version

In 2016, I took over as head of a parental rights group called Parents As First Educators (PAFE). Our focus has been the repeal of the anti-family, anti-religion Kathleen Wynne sex-education curriculum. I am not against sexual education and believe it has a place. But not Wynne’s radical version. I have been an outspoken advocate for the rights of all parents in this province, which include those from the Jewish, Muslim, atheist, Christian, Sikh, Hindu, and LGBT+ community.

For this, I have been accused of wanting to force my religious views on the people of Ontario using the sex-ed curriculum. That is incorrect. I support the true separation of church and state, but that separation has to go both ways, which includes religious liberty free of state interference. Ontario parents have had to endure the state’s overreach into their lives under Premier Wynne. I simply hope to restore a more proper balance.

Thankfully, that may soon come. The days are numbered for the Kathleen Wynne Liberals. And while Doug Ford has broken the promise he made to me, I am not going away. Nor is PAFE. Nor are the other freedom-loving, pro-family voters and activists who helped make Doug Ford PC leader. When the PCs win a majority government on June 7, we all look forward to continuing the fight for Ontario children, parents, and families.

Tanya Granic Allen is the president of Parents As First Educators (PAFE) and was a candidate for the 2018 Ontario PC Leadership.

No Place in Canadian Politics for a Bible-Believing Christian

War on Christianity - Canadian Politics

This spring's Ontario Conservative Party leadership campaign included a real conservative breath-of-fresh-air named Tanya Granic Allen. Probably the most intelligent of all the leadership hopefuls, she was too conservative to ever win. But now, the eventual winner of that campaign, Doug Ford, brother of the infamous Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto from 2010-2014, has signaled that Granic Allen will not be permitted to run for MLA in Ontario. Her views are too conservative for the Conservative Party.

Specifically, some years ago she compared Islamic veils to masks, and she made a comment which was slammed by oversensitive people as homophobic - the most overused word of more than one syllable in the English language. Islamophobic may be the 2nd most overused word of more than one syllable, and she has been called that as well.

Her Islamophobic accusations stem from comments made some years ago including:

"I don't believe people should dress like ninjas when going for an afternoon stroll. I don't believe that people should dress like bank robbers when going to vote," she said. "My daughter loves wearing a spider-man mask, but I forbid her from wearing it out in public."

In another case, she linked to a news story about an attack on two teenage girls in Zanzibar, calling it "yet another reason not to vacation in a Muslim country."

Her homophobic title originates from comments like this:

She also denied that a tweet in which she wished the Queen would not allow gay marriage meant she opposed the practice. "Somebody wrote that gay marriage would force the Queen to break her oath and I simply said, 'Well the Queen should keep her oath,' because we should not lie," she said.

Another tweet where Granic Allen expressed shock that Malta had passed a law allowing gay marriage and adoption "wasn't anything pro or con," she said, simply an observation on how quickly the country had acted on the issue.

Granic Allen would not, however, clarify whether she supports gay marriage, saying it is a federal issue. "It has nothing to do with this election and I don't need to comment on that," she said.

So, anyone who doesn't support gay marriage is qualified a homophobe by the horrified media. Consequently, any admission as such is political suicide. The Canadian media leans so far to the left that they think anyone who leans a little to the right is completely up-side-down. Their perspective is that skewed. 

Doug Ford, leader Ontario Conservative Party

It was well into my lifetime that the idea of gay marriage would have been horrifying to anyone in the media. In fact, throughout the entire history of mankind the idea would have horrified normal people. Yet today, in barely one generation, the Canadian media is completely unanimous and condemning anyone who disagrees with gay marriage.

Politicians, even Conservative politicians are so frightened of media criticism that they bite their tongues and forbid others to say anything that sounds remotely socially conservative. Or, to be more specific - anything that sounds remotely Christian.

Canada's Main Stream Media (MSM) is not just far-left ideologically, they are, like most far-left ideologues - antiChristian. They are not intentionally antiChristian; they just oppose anything that Christians might believe that might suggest that God will hold us accountable for the evil that we do. And one of the most evil things that we do is to ignore what God said.

In ignoring the Bible, or even in just believing parts of it that fit your morality, you are rejecting Who God is and Who His Son is and the astonishing thing He accomplished by dying on the cross. This is easy for them to do because they don't actually believe God is real or that Jesus Christ is real and the Son of God. They don't reject God or His Son based on research, indeed, 99% of them have never spent 5 minutes researching whether or not God is real. This will cost them dearly when they stand before Him.

There is only one reason why we are on this earth and that is to prepare for Eternity, and we do that by getting to know God both intellectually and experientially.

The media's drift to the far-left has made the likes of Justin Trudeau possible, and the media darling is never questioned about his extreme ideology, and rarely questioned about anything that matters. His requirement for Christians to agree with the principal of abortion in order to obtain funds for co-op positions this summer is a direct attack on Christians that has barely been mentioned by media outlets. And when it is mentioned, it is never in a way that reveals the darkness that hides in the soul of Justin Trudeau.

Canada is lost! There will be no turning back to a moral society. Justin's father Pierre fatally wounded that ideal, and Justin is finishing it off.

Neo-Nazi Leader Quits Movement after Coming Out as Gay & Jewish

Anyone who doesn't know that God has a sense of humour needs to know that this kind of story happens every year or two. It's hilarious!

©  john kevin wilshaw / YouTube

A prominent neo-Nazi and National Front organizer has come out as gay and revealed his Jewish heritage. He made the revelations about his violent past while renouncing far-right extremism.

Kevin Wilshaw, 58, spent his entire adult life promoting white supremacism and was a high-profile figure in the National Front (NF) in the 1980s. He was still speaking at extremist events as recently as this year and was arrested for spewing race hate online in March.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, he admitted to acts of violence and racism including smashing a chair over someone’s head in Leeds and vandalizing a mosque in Aylesbury. He said he joined “because he didn’t have many friends at school,” and was looking for “comradeship” and to be “a member of a group of people that had an aim.”

“Even though you end up being a group of people that through their own extreme views are cut off from society, you do have a sense of comradeship in that you’re a member of a group that’s being attacked by other people,” he added.

Wilshaw joined the British National Party (BNP) at the age of 18 after a stint with the NF, and also dabbled with violent fringe groups such as the Racial Volunteer Force. According to Hope Not Hate, a charity that “campaigns to counter racism and fascism,” Wilshaw had belonged to the far right since 1974.

Wilshaw said he eventually realized racism was “rubbish” and quit the far-right after receiving abuse from within the movement over his sexuality.

“It’s a terribly selfish thing to say, but it’s true, I saw people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street – it’s not until it’s directed at you that you suddenly realize what you’re doing is wrong,” he said.

He feels “appallingly guilty” over his past and now wants to fight racism, although he said he feared reprisals from the far-right for his “betrayal.”

New figures released on Tuesday revealed a stark rise in Islamophobic hate crimes reported in London in the last year.

A total of 17,042 race or religious-related crimes were reported to police 12 months up to April 2017, compared to 16,762 in the previous financial year.

The sharpest increase was recorded among anti-Islam crime, with offences up by a quarter. Homophobic crimes rose 6 percent and anti-Semitic offences increased 4.5 percent.

The government has also been urged to launch an inquiry into far-right extremism in the armed forces after four soldiers were arrested for being alleged members of a banned neo-Nazi group called National Action.