There is a very sad and worrying story that was published recently in the Lancashire Telegraph. It is sad, because it is about a violent attack on the sort of Muslim whose existence reasonable people should celebrate. Here we have a Muslim who works, keeps their head down and who has joined the British Army and who has served the United Kingdom but he was he was subjected to an attack not by the ‘Islamophobes’ that the Left and the Islamic grievance mongers shroud-wave over, but by other Muslims.

The story is as well as being sad, very worrying for what it may be inadvertently revealing. The incident that saw former Territorial Army member Imran Hussain get his jaw broken was primarily between two families, but there look to be communal/political aspects of it that should give us cause for concern. This case could be revealing what might be a more widespread hostility from the Islamic community to those Muslims who are loyal to the Crown and show it by serving in the military. The Lancashire Telegraph piece (h/t ROP) paints a picture of a man who did the right thing being hounded by other Muslims who accused him of being a ‘Muslim killer’. One worry I have is the sort of comment made to Mr Hussain, where he is accused of unjustly taking up arms against Muslims and allying with non-Muslims, could be taken by some other Muslims as an accusation of apostasy and we all know where such accusations can lead don’t we?

The Lancashire Telegraph said:

A JUDGE has ruled a former Territorial Army soldier, blasted for “killing Muslims”, was left with his jaw broken in three places because of his military service.

Imran Khan, 28, approached army reservist Imran Hussain in a Subway, in Blackburn, and told him: “What you are doing is wrong, killing Muslims”, Preston Crown Court heard.

After the incident there were several flashpoints between the Khan and Hussain families, the court was told.

This culminated in a confrontation in the Dahna Lounge, in the town centre, between the two men, which spilled out into the street, with Khan punching Mr Hussain in the face, breaking his jaw.

Khan, of Whalley Old Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Hussain in March 2017.

But Judge Simon Newell ordered a trial over the issue of whether Khan’s motivation for the attack was Mr Hussain’s army membership.

The Lancashire Telegraph then went on to give details of the trial that was ordered by Judge Newell. When you read the whole article from the Lancashire Telegraph you will see that it is apparent that Khan is trying hard to disassociate himself from any anti-British Army motivation for the attack. He cited his studies of Public Service at college, which he said was undertaken with a view to joining the Army and claimed that he had had relatives in the past serve with the British Military.

However, the victim Mr Hussain, who was attacked by Khan when he returned to visit family and friends in Blackburn, showed that he was still convinced that it was his former military service that was behind this incident.

The Lancashire Telegraph added:

Earlier, Mr Hussain had confirmed he firmly believed he had been targeted by Khan because of his role with the TA.

The court heard Mr Hussain’s mother also told him of concerns within the Asian community about his army work and he eventually left the service in November 2016.

He also told the court his car windows were smashed around the same time, which he blamed on the Khan family.

Another incident took place which saw Mohammed Ramzan Khan, the defendant’s brother-in-law, hospitalised, which he blamed on Mr Hussain and his family.

The outcome of this case was that Judge Newell ruled that Mr Hussain’s membership of the Territorial Army was the motivation behind the case and also made some highly critical comments about Khan and his evidence. Judge Newell said that Khan had not been an ‘honest witness’ and had ‘manipulated the facts for his own advantage’

The Lancashire Telegraph added:

Khan will be sentenced on February 14 after reports are compiled, along with family members Shabaz Khan, 26, and Jabbar Khan, 28, also of Whalley Old Road, who admitted to using threatening behaviour as part of the same incident.

The newspaper also stated that several other defendants who were allegedly involved in various aspects of the attack on Mr Hussain, were found not guilty by the judge, presumably because the evidence against these particular defendants was not strong enough. I hope that Khan does get a custodial sentence for this attack. It would not only be a sentence that is deserved, but would also be an illustration that the courts will take seriously attacks by Muslim’s on British service personnel. It’s indeed a serious attack that causes such an injury as breaking a man’s jaw and there the motivation for this attack should be seen as an aggravating factor as should the involvement of others to threaten Mr Hussain.

There is the possibility of course that this was more a familial dispute rather than a dispute over political and religious matters and I think that these factors may have played a part in this attack. But, the Judge who will have looked carefully at the evidence, has decided that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the motivation for this awful attack on Mr Hussain was the result of another Muslim family being enraged by Mr Hussain’s military service.

This may of course be an isolated incident and if that is the case then this incident is one that is both discrete and contained. However, there is the possibility that this is not an isolated incident and there may be other violent Muslim families and groups who may be putting pressure on loyal British Muslims to stay in the Islamic ghetto and not step outside it by joining the HM Forces?

If the second scenario is correct then we may not just be dealing with one family with an animus against their co-religionists who join HM Forces, but a much wider problem. We could for example be seeing the sort of people who bully Muslims out of joining the forces or integrating into British life, not just in Blackburn, but in Islamic ghettos across the United Kingdom. It would be good if those in authority such as Sara Khan, the Government’s Lead Commissioner for the newly created Commission for Countering Extremism, could take an interest in this and any other similar cases. Although I have a personal dislike for and sometimes a disgust at the tenets of orthodox Islam and those who follow them we should protect those Muslims who either wear their religion lightly or who show their loyalty to the UK, especially those who serve HM Armed Forces. I am completely disgusted that we have a situation where a Muslim who has served has been bullied or attacked in the manner that Mr Hussain has been attacked and bullied. I hope that this is an isolated case but I would not be surprised if it is not. If it is an indication of a widespread problem, then the law needs to deal harshly with these bullies and protect those who have chosen to serve, despite objections from a community that too often produced individual who have shown disloyalty to the United Kingdom.