Thug who attacked Orthodox Jews had a prayer on his phone asking for 'refuge from evil'

A thug who attacked three strictly-Orthodox Jews in Stamford Hill had a prayer on his phone asking for “refuge from evil” and protection from the “enemy”.

Abdullah Qureshi, from Dewsbury, Yorkshire, has been found guilty of attacking two men and a 14-year-old boy as he walked through north London in August last year.

Officers found a message on his mobile called: “Dua for protection from your enemy.” A dua is a type of Islamic prayer.

It said: “Oh Allah, we ask You to restrain them by their necks and we seek refuge in You from their evil.”

The 30-year-old previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating and one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Antisemitism campaigners hailed the verdict as a victory after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) reinstated charges of religiously aggravated assault despite initially claiming it did not have enough evidence to do so.

This followed a meeting organised by the Community Security Trust (CST) between one victim and senior CPS officials.

After travelling to London to visit his family, Mr Qureshi embarked upon a string of assaults against Jews.

At 6.40pm on 18 August he hit a teacher in the head with a bottle while playing Arabic music from his phone.

Giving evidence at Stratford Magistrates Court, the victim said: “I felt shocked. When I came home, I was quite traumatised and it traumatised my kids that their father was slapped like that in the road.”

Asked about the motivation for the attack, he said: “He wanted to attack me [as] I’m another religion — that I’m Jewish.

“It shouldn’t be happening another time to our community, to our religion, and it should be everything peaceful. I thought as a young child that London is a peaceful and safe place and it’s not really.”

At 7.45pm, Mr Qureshi slapped a 14-year-old boy as he walked to his Orthodox Jewish school.

In a statement read out in court, the victim, now 16, said: “The man said nothing to me and just slapped me and walked away.”

Some 45 minutes later, Mr Qureshi punched a 64-year-old man with such force that he hit his head on a wall and fell to the ground unconscious.

The victim, who was en route to a synagogue, suffered bruising to his face, broken glasses, a sprained ankle and multiple broken bones in his foot.

CST Director of Policy Dave Rich said: “This was a shocking series of assaults on ordinary Jewish people that brought home the horrific impact of anti-Jewish violence.

“Today’s verdict vindicates the determination shown by the victims, with the support of CST and others, that Qureshi’s attacks should be fully prosecuted as religious hate crimes.”