Faces of Hate

Look upon the faces of the four men who attempted t murder a Christian schoolteacher, and their gofer who disposed of their bloodstained clothing.


The assault on Gary Smith the head of Religious Education at the Central Foundation Girls' School in Bow will be well known to you. The defendants did not approve of a male, and a Christian teaching girls.

From The London Evening Standard :- Armed with a metal rod and a brick, they punched, kicked and attacked Mr Smith, leaving him unconscious and covered in blood on the pavement in Burdett Road.
Simon Alam, 19, of Whitechapel, Azad Hussain, 26, of Wapping, Sheikh Rashid, 27, of Shadwell, and Akmol Hussein, 26, of Bethnal Green, all in east London, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent earlier this year.

Sentencing them at east London's Snaresbrook Crown Court, Judge John Hand QC said he believed they all remained a danger to the public due to their extreme religious beliefs.

Addressing the defendants one by one, he said: "Your belief is that you carried out a duty to your God and you did so with no mercy. If you think that people around you in society present an insult or threat to God then you will not hesitate in attacking again in the way that you have acted."

Hussein, who had a niece at the school, was heard to say: "He's mocking us and he's putting thoughts in people's minds. How can somebody take a job to teach Islam when he's not even a Muslim himself?" He was also recorded as saying that he did not care if he had to go to prison over the attack as he was doing it for the sake of Allah.

The court heard that the men had admitted their motivation behind the attack was their religious belief.

Prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse said of Mr Smith: "He was targeted as the victim of this attack quite simply because of his position as head of religious studies at the school. The defendants held very strong religious beliefs and they chose him because they did not approve of his teaching."

He (Judge John Hand QC) said he deemed Akmol Hussein, a social worker and self- employed builder, and Azad Hussain, a finance worker, to have played the greatest role in the planning and execution of the attack and sentenced them each to an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of five years.

Student Alam was told he must serve a minimum of five years in prison before being released on licence for a further five years, while bus driver Rashid was handed a four-year sentence with a further five years on licence.

A fifth defendant, Badruzzuha Uddin, 24, also of Shadwell, was also jailed for two years after previously admitting a charge of assisting an offender after he hid the men's bloodstained clothes.

I remember my days as a clerk of the Crown Court when an attack like this attracted life imprisonment, or at least over 10 years. We live in sad times.