Martin Rynja, owner of Gibson Square Publishing, had the door to his home in Islington doused in diesel and set ablaze in protest at a book his company was about the publish which the men deemed offensive to Islam and the prophet Mohammed. Ali Beheshti, 41, and Abrar Mirza, 23, both British-born, were picked up at the scene by counter-terrorism officers who had been tipped off about the attack. Their getaway driver, Abbas Taj, 31, was arrested nearby. Jailing them for four and a half years each, Mrs Justice Rafferty said the sentences should act as deterrence and said that "in an open society there has to be open access to literary works, regardless of fear". She told them: "If you choose 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."
The men targeted Mr Rynja's home in Islington last September, days before he was due to release the US author Sherry Jones' novel "The Jewel of Medina", a historical story about the Prophet's child bride A'isha. The book was criticised for inaccuracy, sex and violence by academics, and caused a storm among Islam clerics in America. After an American academic warned it could provoke a violent backlash from Muslims, the publisher Random House, which published Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses", pulled its release. Gibson Square stepped in and Mr Rynja remained determined to publish it in Britain.
The group's ringleader, unemployed Beheshti, from Ilford, East London, was a former member of the radical group al-Muhajiroun who had burned himself in a demonstration in May 2005 when he set light to a picture of George Bush.
Priceless.
Calling himself Abu Jihad, he also took his 20-month old daughter, dressed in an "I love al-Qaida" hat, to the protests against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006.
For her next birthday, she'll be getting a "My daddy went to prison for terrorizing his fellow citizens and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirt.
Taj, a trustee of the Muslim Prisoner Support Group,
| Now he'll be supporting from inside the prison. Well done! |
| Whataminnit -- I thought Mr Baheshti was unemployed. |
Behesti and Mirza, from Walthamstow, admitted conspiracy to recklessly damage property and endanger life, while Taj, a minicab driver from Forest Gate, East London, was found guilty of the same charge after trial. Barrister Andrew Hall QC, for Beheshti, said the arson attack was "an act of protest born of the publication of a book felt by him and other Muslims to be disrespectful, provocative and offensive".
Mrs Justice Rafferty praised Mr Rynja, saying that "principled man that he is, had done two things - exercised critical judgement on a literary work, and stood up to be counted, knowing that publishing it put him at risk".