UK NEWS

'A LA CARTE' MUSLIM ARSONISTS JAILED

Arson damage caused to the bookshop door by Muslim extremists

Wednesday July 8,2009

By Martin Evans

A JUDGE yesterday condemned three Muslim extremists before jailing them for an arson attack on the home of a controversial publisher.

She told them British citizenship was not “a la carte”, adding: “If you chose to live in this country, you live by its rules.”

Ali Beheshti, 41, Abrar Mirza, 23 and Abbas Taj, 30, were each jailed for 4d years for pouring diesel through the letterbox of a man about to publish a book they deemed offensive to the prophet Mohammed.

Delivering her uncompromising message to those intent on destroying the British way of life, Mrs Justice Rafferty said they could not pick and choose the laws they wanted to obey.

The attack on Martin Rynja’s north London home occurred last September, just days before Sherry Jones’s novel, The Jewel Of Medina, was due to be published by his company, Gibson Square Publishing.

The book, which angered some in the Muslim community, focuses on the relationship between Mohammed and his child bride, Aisha.

Croydon Crown Court had earlier heard how the three men had been planning to sleep at the Regent’s Park Mosque as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

But after meeting up they set off for Mr Rynja’s home with “fire-making equipment” in the boot of their car. Beheshti and Mirza poured diesel through Mr Rynja’s letterbox before setting it alight, causing significant damage. Taj, a taxi driver, waited for them in his cab.

The first two pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and being reckless as to whether life is endangered.

Taj, who claimed he had known nothing about the attack and had simply been giving them a lift, was convicted of the same charges.

Beheshti previously hit the headlines for his extremist tendencies when his baby daughter was pictured wearing a hat with the slogan “I love Al Qaeda” at a protest against Danish cartoons of Mohammed.

He proudly called her “the youngest member of Al Qaeda” and waved banners vowing to “massacre those who insult Islam” and promising “Europe, your 9/11 will come!”

Beheshti, who has a previous conviction for the attempted murder of his own father, also set fire to his hands with petrol outside the US Embassy during the same protest.

Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Rafferty said: “If you chose to live in this country, you live by its rules.

“There is no such thing as ‘a la carte citizenship’ and, in your case, there is no such thing as a la carte obedience to the law.

“I do not accept that your plan was restricted to firing the door but not the premises.”

She added: “There has to be open access to literary works, regardless of fear.”

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