Islam and violence

The mother of a British-born man detained for nearly nine years without trial in Syria has called for his repatriation to the UK or Canada as the US plans to airlift 7,000 Islamic State-linked prisoners from Syria to Iraq.

Sally Lane, the mother of Jack Letts, 30, said she was “frantically trying to find out as much as possible” and that it was unclear if he would face the death penalty in Iraq or remain in Syria – or be sent to Canada or the UK in line with US demands.

Neither the Canadian nor British government has updated her after an outbreak of fighting in Syria last week left the future of Letts and other prisoners from up to 70 countries uncertain. “We’ve heard absolutely nothing. They think we don’t deserve to know,” Lane said.

A convicted terrorist who was jailed for plotting to blow up the British embassy and had links to hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza intends to stand as a candidate in Birmingham’s local elections.

Shahid Butt, 60, said he wants to ‘unify the people’ and push back against the far right when he stands for election in Sparkhill, in the upcoming Birmingham City Council elections, which will be held in May.

However his candidacy is marred by controversy.

Is the occasional rape something modern Britain is willing to tolerate before the authorities will get a grip on the border? It’s certainly starting to seem that way.

Yesterday, after a five-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court, a Pakistani national was found guilty of raping an 18-year-old girl in Nottinghamshire. Sheraz Malik, 28, met his victim at Sutton Lawn Park, Sutton-in-Ashfield, on 29 June last year. The girl had been drinking with a male friend, and was drunk when she was introduced to Malik. He was among a larger group of older men.

A 90-year-old woman was raped in her home in Nice last week after opening the door to a man she believed was her nurse, with prosecutors later confirming that the suspect was living illegally in France despite being under a deportation order.

The alleged attacker, a 29-year-old Tunisian national, was arrested and placed in police custody before being formally charged with rape of a vulnerable person and remanded in pre-trial detention, according to the Nice public prosecutor.

A plan to honour the Polish king who saved Vienna from an Ottoman siege has sparked a diplomatic row after the Austrian capital refused to erect the monument, citing fears it could offend the Muslim community.

The long-running dispute centres on a proposed statue of King John III Sobieski, intended for Vienna’s Kahlenberg mountain—the site of his decisive victory over the Ottoman army in 1683. First proposed in 2013 and formally approved in 2018, the project had been stalled for years before being definitively rejected by the city authorities at the end of 2024.

Britain has quietly repatriated Islamic State-linked women and children who were held alongside Shamima Begum in Syria, according to a director of the camp that holds the so-called Isis brides.

Six women in camps held by the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been sent back to Britain without fanfare, along with nine children.

There have been concerns that Isis prisoners might escape in the chaos engulfing eastern Syria as the central authorities begin to reclaim territory from the Kurdish-led SDF.

Bloodstains and stab wounds: Germany has been shaken by a series of serious stabbings. Incidents in Berlin, Lüneburg, Friedrichshafen, and Duisburg have raised concerns about escalating knife violence involving both adults and minors, prompting ongoing police investigations.

In Berlin’s Treptow-Köpenick district on the evening of Friday, January 25th, a 19-year-old man was seriously wounded in a knife attack at a bus stop when two unknown assailants reportedly attempted to rob him. He suffered stab wounds to his chest and abdomen and was taken to hospital for surgery, while the perpetrators fled and police launched an investigation.