Man who blinded imam detained

Via London Assembly member Murad Qureshi, the man who attacked one of the imams at Regent's Park mosque in London last year, leaving him blind for life, has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act. The councillor seeks to reassure the Muslim community that the attacker, Brian Donegan, will be detained for life, despite the not-guilty verdict, which was achieved because of Donegan's "insanity".

As he points out, the man can only be released with the approval of the Home Secretary; this means that he may well be freed when the doctors clear him for release, which will probably be several years but it will probably happen, because the case neither had a high profile nor did it involve loss of life (although people detained in the mental health system, even for non-lethal violence, sometimes spend longer in hospital than common murderers spend in jail, as was the case with Janet Cresswell).

Br Murad's blog also alludes to the possibility of the Egyptian government pulling the imams out, which would not only be a huge loss to the community but would also necessitate finding imams from somewhere. This would either mean the British Indo-Pak Muslim community or Saudi Arabia, or perhaps Morocco. Either way, the mosque would need imams, and the next time an Islamophobic nut like Donegan wants to attack an imam, he can go and poke out a Saudi's or a Pakistani's eyes instead of an Egyptian's. It is not as if attacks on Muslims, or indeed general senseless violence against people, is anything new in the UK; it would be a sad day when the Muslim community in London has its imams withdrawn just because an Egyptian citizen gets hurt.

Islamophobia Watch also has some notes on what was in the media in the days before the shaikh was attacked.