‘Punish A Muslim Day’: man charged over sick ‘game’

A 35-year-old man has been charged with 14 offences including soliciting to murder for allegedly sending out flyers encouraging people to “punish a Muslim”.

David Parnham, from Lincoln, allegedly made and distributed hate-filled leaflets that urged people to harass and attack their Muslim neighbours on “Punish A Muslim Day”, to be held on 3 April this year.

The flyers included a list of “points” to be awarded for various acts of Islamophobic aggression, ranging from verbal abuse to physical violence, and were sent to Muslims in London, Cardiff, Yorkshire and the Midlands in March. Copies were also posted to four Labour MPs.

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The disturbing letters, and the sick “game” outlined in them, made headlines around the world, and sent shock and fear through many UK Muslim communities.

“Some Muslim women said they would not go to work and others suggested they would take off their headscarves so as to look less like a Muslim,” Sky News reports.

The hashtags “#LoveAMuslimDay” and “#WeStandTogether” sprang up on social media in response to the hateful notes.

Parnham was arrested by counterterrorism police on Tuesday and will appear in Westminster Magistrates’ Court today. A residential property and office in Lincoln was searched as part of the investigation, The Guardian reports.

In addition to the charges relating to the flyers, Parnham also faces “five counts of sending a substance with the intention of inducing in a person a belief that it is likely to contain a noxious substance”, and one count of staging a bomb hoax, says The Independent.