Men jailed for Hate Crime leaflets

Left to right: Ihjaz Ali, Mehboob Hussain, Umar Javed, Razwan Javed, and Kabir Ahmed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw on the news the other day a story about bullying gay people. Some men in Derby put leaflets through the doors of the houses around their Mosque. The leaflets said that being gay is wrong and that gay people should be killed.

 

This is very upsetting and frightening for the people who saw the leaflets.

 

 

I heard about this too and it made me upset and cross. The police got involved, they found out who made the leaflets and they arrested them.

 

This is very important because this is the first time anyone has been charged by the police for bullying gay people in this way. In 2010 there was a new law which says it is wrong to:

“get people to join in with bullying people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual”

I am a Muslim and I don’t agree with bullying gay people. In the Muslim faith we believe that all bullying is wrong and should be stopped. Our faith also tells us that we should follow the laws in Britain. Most Muslim people don’t agree with those men who made these leaflets.

I am proud to be gay and I know that Muslims can be gay too. I think it is awful for the Muslim gay people who saw the leaflets, they must have been really scared. It can be hard to be a gay Muslim, here are some websites with some information about groups who support gay Muslims:

www.safraproject.org

www.imaan.org.uk

http://www.al-bab.com/arab/background/gay.htm

Saffron – Bradford based support for black and minority ethnic women questioning their sexual orientation: Telephone 07501 221 561 or email saffron@equitypartnership.org.uk