Event in Victoria Park organised by East London mosque and London Muslim Centre was open to ‘men, boys of all ages and girls under 12’

The communities secretary has said it was “absolutely unacceptable” for women to be excluded from taking part in a Muslim charity run in London.

The event on Sunday, in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, was advertised on the Muslim Charity Run website as an “inclusive 5km race” for “runners and supporters of all ages and abilities” – open to “men, boys of all ages and girls under 12”.

Judge says Hamit Coskun has ‘right to offend’ and overturns conviction for religiously aggravated public order offence

A man who was fined for setting fire to a Qur’an outside the Turkish consulate in London has won an appeal against his conviction after a judge backed his “right to offend”.

Hamit Coskun was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence in June after shouting “fuck Islam” and “Islam is religion of terrorism” while burning the holy book in February.

Four people have so far been arrested as part of police investigation into attack in East Sussex, which caused ‘significant damage’

Police have made further arrests over an arson attack on a mosque in East Sussex.

The building in Phyllis Avenue, Peacehaven was badly damaged by the fire at about 9.50pm on Saturday. Nobody was injured, but police said “significant damage” was caused to the front of the building and a nearby vehicle.

Shaista Gohir says latest government figures are probably an ‘underestimation’ as many incidents go unreported

The head of a leading UK Muslim charity has said she is “deeply worried” about the unprecedented levels of anxiety in the community as government data shows hate crimes against Muslims are up by nearly a fifth.

Shaista Gohir, the cross-bench peer and head of the Muslim Women’s Network has criticised ministers for being “silent” and called for a public government response to figures which she believes to be “an underestimation”.

Residents in Michigan city on edge as threats against their community rise, and some are reassessing their support for Trump

Amirah Sharhan recalls it being a regular fall afternoon in October 2024.

The Yemeni American, who had been living in the Dearborn and Detroit area for four years, was preparing dinner while her mother took Amirah’s seven-year-old daughter, Saida, to a nearby playground to play with her friends.

Fire at mosque in Peacehaven on Saturday night left front entrance damaged and a car burnt out

A suspected arson attack on a mosque in an English seaside town is being investigated by police as a hate crime.

The front entrance to the mosque in Peacehaven, East Sussex, was damaged and a car parked outside was entirely burnt out after the incident on Saturday night, which has been condemned by political figures and faith groups.

A suspected arson attack on a mosque in an English seaside town is being investigated by police as a hate crime. The front entrance to the mosque in Peacehaven, East Sussex, was damaged and a car parked outside was entirely burned out after the incident on Saturday night, which has been condemned by political figures and faith groups

• Suspected arson attack at East Sussex mosque investigated as hate crime

Shaker, wanted over his connection to deadly shootout between militants and army, had been hiding out in Palestinian refugee camp

A Lebanese pop star turned wanted Islamist militant handed himself over to the country’s military intelligence service 12 years after going on the run.

Fadel Shaker had been on the run since the bloody street clashes between Sunni Muslim militants and the Lebanese army in June 2013 in the coastal city of Sidon. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020 for providing support to a “terrorist group”.

Serbian nationals also accused by Serbian police of defacing Jewish sites, as French officials investigate foreign interference

Serbian police have arrested 11 people, accusing them of “inciting hatred” in France and Germany, and linking them to acts that include placing pigs’ heads near mosques and defacing Jewish sites.

The arrests came days after French prosecutors said foreign interference was probably to blame for a spate of provocative acts that had targeted Jewish and Muslim sites in France in recent years, as tensions run high over the war in Gaza. French officials have previously said they were investigating Russia’s role in destabilising operations that have stoked social tensions and sown division in France.

Bass player and founder member of Pentangle who worked with John Martyn, Nick Drake and Kate Bush

Afounder member of the British folk-rock band Pentangle, the double bass player Danny Thompson also added depth and resonance to recordings by artists as varied as Nick Drake and Kate Bush, Cliff Richard and Everything But the Girl, Graham Coxon and John Martyn – to name a handful among the hundreds of sessions he played on from the early 1960s into the 21st century.

Thompson, who has died aged 86, was a musician’s musician, his bass always compl. His fluid playing enriched the albums Five Leaves Left (1969) by Drake and Solid Air (1973) by Martyn, and he went on to form a long working relationship with Martyn, and, later, the singer-songwriter Richard Thompson (no relation).

Manchester mayor urges Keir Starmer to reveal plans to deliver reform but denies he is plotting to replace PM

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has described Nigel Farage over his comment implying Donald Trump might be right about paracetamol posing a risk to pregnant women. (See 10.23am.)

Dangerous and irresponsible.

This man is a snake oil salesman and it’s time people stopped buying.

Keir Starmer urged to take action over US president’s inflammatory speech to the UN

Keir Starmer is facing demands from Labour MPs to reprimand Donald Trump’s administration after the US president falsely claimed London wanted to “go to sharia law” under its “terrible mayor”, Sadiq Khan.

In an address to the UN general assembly, Trump said: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed. Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”

Food handouts and employment are increasingly tied to Afghan families’ agreement to strict Islamic education

When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Nahid, 24, was midway through an economics degree. She had hoped to work in a university after she graduated.

Instead, Nahid now spends her mornings at a religious school in the basement of a mosque in the western city of Herat, sitting on the floor and reciting scripture with 50 other women and girls, all dressed in black from head to toe.