Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the immigrant-bashing, Muslim-hating leader of the far-right English Defense League was sentenced yesterday to 10 months in a British prison after pleading guilty to trying to illegally enter the United States. Yaxley-Lennon used a friend’s passport in order to speak at a gathering of other immigrant-bashing, Muslim-hating bigots last Sept. 11 in New York City. ( continue to full post… )

An Indiana man who pleaded guilty yesterday to setting an Ohio mosque on fire told a judge he was motivated by media accounts – specifically those on Fox News – suggesting Muslims were threatening Americans and were in control of parts of the federal government.

Details made public at the plea hearing also revealed that the arsonist, Randolph Linn, was carrying a pistol when he entered the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on September 30, only minutes after several worshippers had left, and had more guns in his car.

Linn, a 52-year-old truck driver from St. Joe, Ind., expressed no remorse when he admitted trying to burn down the third largest mosque in the United States. Under the terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors and Linn’s defense attorney will recommend a prison term of 20 years when he is sentenced early next year.

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A legislative aide in the Alaska State Legislature has resigned after an ethics panel recommended that she be fired for ethical violations and conflicts of interest involving her boosting of a hard-line anti-Islamic organization.

Karen Sawyer, who worked for two Republican legislators over the past nine years, “allowed state resources to be used for a non-legislative purpose and for the private benefit of David Heckert,” the Alaska regional director of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), according to one of two reports issued by a subcommittee of the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics. Sawyer failed to disclose that she was on SIOA’s board of directors in 2011 and 2012, one of the reports said. ( continue to full post… )

Hate crimes against perceived Muslims, which jumped up 50% in 2010 largely as a result of anti-Muslim propagandizing, remained at relatively high levels last year, according to 2011 hate crime statistics released today by the FBI. ( continue to full post… )

A federal judge has ordered Randolph T. Linn – who is charged with setting fire to a mosque outside of Toledo, Ohio, earlier this month – held without bail until he stands trial on two federal hate crime charges returned this week by a grand jury.

Linn, who has expressed obscenity-laced anti-Muslim comments, is a flight risk and “there is serious risk that the defendant will endanger the safety of another person or the community,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Vernelis K. Armstrong said in an order filed after a hearing Thursday.

After viewing evidence against Linn in a closed session, the grand jury panel voted this week to indict the 52-year-old St. Joe, Ind., truck driver on two federal charges – intentionally defacing, damaging and destroying religious real property because of the religious character of that property and using fire to commit a felony. ( continue to full post… )

Federal hate crime charges were filed today in Ohio against an Indiana man, Randolph Linn, who is a suspect in last weekend’s arson fire that heavily damaged the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.

Linn was charged with intentionally defacing, damaging and destroying religious property, and with using fire and explosives to commit a felony, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced. ( continue to full post… )

Muslims and their places of worship “are clearly under attack,” says the president of one of the country’s largest mosques, which was heavily damaged four days ago in an arson fire.

“We’re actually reeling in disbelief,” Dr. Mahjabeen Islam, president of the Islamic Center of Toledo in Ohio, told Hatewatch today in describing the devastation caused by a fire deliberately set in the mosque’s prayer area on Sunday afternoon, just minutes after worshippers had left the building.

“This is a hate crime and it’s very significant it was started in the center of the prayer area, right under the dome,” said Islam. The mosque she heads is the third largest in the United States, a 70,000-square foot landmark, visible for miles, with 3,000 members who will celebrate the center’s 32^nd anniversary on Friday. ( continue to full post… )

Steve Klein, the California ex-marine identified as a consultant for the anti-Islam film that apparently triggered violent protests in northern Africa and the Middle East, is finally seeing the fruits of his labor.

For years, Klein has been cultivating relationships with Middle Eastern Christians in California – in particular, Joseph Nasralla, a California Coptic Christian who spoke at an anti-Muslim rally hosted by hate group leaders Pam Geller and Robert Spencer on Sept. 11, 2010. ( continue to full post… )

Yesterday, we posted a run-down of some of the anti-LGBT speakers who are appearing at this year’s Values Voter Summit (VVS), a gathering of social conservatives that begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., and is attracting a number of high-level public officials from the GOP, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.

In addition to the usual gay-bashers, the summit hosted by the Family Research Council (FRC) also provides a public platform for rabid Islamophobes who promote an array of anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and propaganda. ( continue to full post… )

Steve Klein, the leader of a California hate group, says that Islam is a “penis-driven religion” whose followers have “no choice but to hunt Jews and Christians down, torture us and murder us.”

Klein of Hemet, Calif., who has a long history of ties to militant Christian organizations, has been identified as one of the brains behind the anti-Muslim film that triggered violence in northern Africa, including a rocket attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the murder of Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya. ( continue to full post… )