“Police said Beheshti was also charged with possessing a weapon ‘designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid or gas.'”
Now that’s interesting. A few days ago we saw Aziz Poonawalla, a colleague of the unhinged psychotic Dean Esmay, claiming that a noxious gas had been set off in an Ohio mosque, and blaming the Obsession DVD. Police found that no noxious gas had actually been set off there, and that no hate crime was committed at all, but Poonawalla has not apologized to the makers of Obsession.
Anyway, now we have a real case involving Muslims and noxious gas. Will Aziz Poonawalla write about it indignantly at Beliefnet or Esmay’s site, denouncing Ali Behesti, Abrar Mirza, and Abbas Taj, and defending the freedom of speech? I am rooting for the better angels of his nature.
An update on this story. “Mohammed Book Firebomb Charges,” from SkyNews, October 3:
Three men have appeared in court over a firebomb attack on the London publisher of a book about the Prophet Mohammed and his bride.
Ali Behesti, 40, Abrar Mirza, 22, and 30-year-old Abbas Taj are charged with plotting to endanger life and damage property.
Police said Beheshti was also charged with possessing a weapon “designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid or gas”.
The three accused were remanded in custody following a hearing at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court and will appear at the Old Bailey in October.
The suspected petrol bomb attack targeted a north London property which is the home and office of Martin Rynja.
Mr Rynja is the director of publisher Gibson Square, which planned to release Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina.
The book is due to be published in Britain in October.
In August, US publisher Random House said it was dropping the novel because of the threat of violence.
The firm said it had been advised that the book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community and could incite violence by a “small, radical segment”.
Ms Jones said she was shocked at the decision.
“I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed… I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder,” she said….