Muslim woman said masked man targeted her over religion

She said she was the victim of a hate crime, but now police say a 19-year-old Elmhurst College student made up her story that a masked man attacked her in a campus restroom because she's a Muslim.

Safia Z. Jilani, a 19-year-old sophomore at the school, was charged Friday with filing a false police report, a Class 4 felony punishable by one to three years in prison, Elmhurst police said. [Link]

In November, a 15yr old Sikh boy ran to the Police and media claiming that he was assaulted by 4 white youths as he walked through Pilrig Park in Edinburgh.

He told police that the gang taunted him with racist remarks, then assaulted him by punching and kicking him, before they ripped off his bandana style headscarf and cut of his long hair.

This supposed race attack was seen to be even more outrageous than any other loathsome race hatred because Sikh’s believe their hair to be sacred and should never have it cut. A spokesman for the Sikh community said that pinning down a Sikh and cutting of his hair was “tantamount to killing him.”

The Scottish media and politicians went into overdrive and more than 200 Sikhs from throughout Britain came to Edinburgh, to march in protest. Lothian and Borders Police even set up dedicated text and e-mail service for information and paid visits to local secondary schools in pursuit of the evil white racists....

On Christmas Eve the truth emerged however that the teenager made up the whole sorry tale as some kind of attention seeking tantrum, after a second interview with police. He admitted punching himself in the face and cutting off his own hair.

Despite a report having been sent to the Procurator Fiscal, it has emerged this month that no charges will be brought against the teenager for wasting police time because a prosecution was deemed not to be in the public interest. [Link]

A Pakistani immigrant accused of burning down his grocery store in Everett and trying to make it look like a hate crime has been convicted of arson.

Mizra Akram, 40, could face as much as five years in prison for the crime. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman convicted him Wednesday.

Akram owned Continental Spices, a Pakistani and Middle Eastern grocery. Prosecutors said he recruited an acquaintance, Naveed Khan, to help set the July 2004 fire after the store's finances worsened.

The government alleged that the two tried to remove attention from themselves by spray-painting anti-Muslim graffiti around the store. Khan previously pleaded guilty to arson and testified against Akram. [Link]