A man who threatened to “burn down every f****** mosque in Newcastle” following the Southport stabbings during a despicable TikTok rant received a 20-month prison sentence.
James Aspin, of Blyth, in Northumberland, uploaded his anti-Muslim and Islamophobic rant to his TikTok account that boasted 931 followers, which included the call to burn mosques whilst demonising refugees and Muslims more broadly by linking them to criminality.
Aspin had pleaded guilty to stirring up religious hatred (contrary to section 29E of the Public Order Act 1986) on 13 August after a member of the public alerted police days earlier.
Her Honour Judge Scott told Aspin that his words proved “hugely offensive and dangerous” and that he spoke about “people who practice Islam as being largely responsible for awful crimes committed in this country.” Adding, “You spoke about asylum seekers in a despicable way. You stated that you and others at the planned march in Newcastle would burn down every mosque in Newcastle.”
According to the judgment, the threatening video gained 14 likes, 18 comments and three saves.
Following his arrest, the judgment added that Aspin called asylum seekers “Muslim Asians” who “should not come to the UK, as caused problems for the country” when interviewed by officers from Northumbria police.
Her Honour clarified that Aspin’s threats fell into category one as it “directly encouraged activity which threatened or endangered life”, and whilst not a call for ‘direct action’ it did, however, ‘encourage’ it. Another factor was the nature of TikTok since his account remained visible to all “at a time when there was widespread violence in this country, there was a particularly sensitive social climate.”
Mitigating factors included his early guilty plea (which reduced the sentence by one-third) and a borderline IQ level.
Again, however, the judge made clear that his words “are not and should be tolerated” since such threatening language “could and do, on some occasions, result in action being taken by others which have a serious impact on the lives of other people,” and, therefore, only an immediate custodial sentence would suffice.
Following the horrendous Southport stabbings, we observed other examples of those jailed calling for the burning of mosques.
Tell MAMA, more broadly, recorded almost 5,000 anti-Muslim cases a year after the Hamas terror attacks on 7 October 2023.
Tell MAMA engages with various social media platforms and encourages Muslim communities and the wider public to confidently flag materials they find on TikTok (and other platforms). Contact us via our website, email info@tellmamauk.org, or direct message us on the relevant social media platform.