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Extremist who attacked George Galloway is jailed for 16 months

Neil-Masterson

via. IslamophobiaWatch

A man who attacked the Respect MP George Galloway in a London street has been jailed for 16 months.

Drug addict Neil Masterson, 39, left the pro-Palestine MP for Bradford West with cuts and bruises to his head and ribs and requiring hospital treatment after the frenzied assault in Notting Hill in August.

Masterson, who was wearing a pink t-shirt with an Israeli Defence Force logo when he was arrested nearby, told police he felt “morally justified” in attacking the MP because he was a “Nazi” with a “shameful” attitude towards Jews, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Galloway, the court heard, believes he would have been killed if Masterson, who had “recently undergone a conversion towards Judaism”, had been armed with a knife during their chance meeting.

Masterson, of Kensington, who used to work for the Department of Work and Pensions and as a manager at the BBC, had previously admitted assaulting Mr Galloway and a second charge of common assault against a man who had been posing for a picture with the MP as the attack happened.

Judge Aidan Marron QC told the clean-shaven and smartly suited Masterson: “While you are no longer facing a charge of religiously aggravated assault, it would be unreal to ignore that the motivation for this … was your profound hostility to Mr Galloway’s views.”

He added that Masterson’s “loathing” of Galloway was manifested by what he did at the start of the assault and said afterwards in interviews.

The court heard that 60-year-old former Labour MP Mr Galloway had been in London on private business when the attack happened at around 7.25pm on Friday August 29.

He was posing for a photo near his car in Golborne Road with Moroccan doctor Mostafa Maroof and a friend when Masterson approached them “in a rage”, prosecutor Michelle Nelson told the court. She said he mentioned the Holocaust, leading Mr Galloway to fear he was a right-wing extremist.

The attack on the MP included 10 punches and a “Kung-fu style” kick which did not connect but caused Mr Galloway to fall into the road, where Masterson continued hitting him.

Mr Maroof, who was shoved over in the attack, and his friend managed to push Masterson away and prevent him from launching another attack before he fled onto a bus, the court heard.

The three men called 999 and then got in Mr Galloway’s car to follow Masterson’s bus, despite police telling them not to. They flagged down a passing patrol car which stopped the bus and officers arrested Masterson.

Ms Nelson said Masterson admitted to police he said “Anti-semitic little man, I f****** despise you” during the attack and described Galloway as “a morally and intellectually bankrupt person”.

She added: “The defendant said that he wanted to make Mr Galloway realise that his attitude towards Jews was shameful, it shames all Catholics and it shames anyone who has any idea of humanity. He felt he (Galloway) is a serpent in a way.”

She continued: “He felt he was morally justified in assaulting Mr Galloway. He said he thought Galloway was a Nazi and his political views were hate.”

Mr Galloway welcomed the sentence but questioned the decision to drop a charge of religiously aggravated assault. He said:

“The sentence is reasonable in the circumstances. However, had the charge of religiously aggravated assault not been dropped I’m sure it would have been considerably longer and I fail to see why that charge was dropped given that he was wearing an IDF T-shirt and screaming about Israel and me. If an Asian man wearing a Palestinian T-shirt had attacked a pro-Israeli MP would the sentence have been the same?”

In a victim impact statement read in court Mr Galloway described still being in pain from his injuries and how it had left his wife and children in a “constant state of worry”. “I no longer go anywhere alone”, he wrote. “I now need to have someone with me while working.”

Hillingdon Times, 11 December 2014


Masterson’s Facebook page provides an insight into his political ideology, which is typical far-right Islamophobia, inspired by groups such as Britain First. Like many who hold these views Masterson is a fervent Zionist, seeing the state of Israel as a bulwark against Islam. Along with declarations of admiration for the IDF, he repeatedly calls for the suppression of Islam in the UK. In a rambling open letter to David Cameron, which accompanies a link to a video promoting a protest against the Muslim Brotherhood organised by the EDL splinter group the South East Alliance, Masterson writes:

“The fault line between Islam and democracy is terminal … This country became great as a function of its vigorous prosecution of Catholicism over centuries: we excluded them from all forms of collective worship; public and civic life; etc etc… So, I ask you, as a man of all things fair: why is Islam getting a free pass when it is infinitely more alien to our culture than Catholicism? … the enemy is right in front of us and it is patient and vowed to destruction. Shows them the true awe and majesty of the law and make anti Islamic legislation the centrepiece of a second reformation; it is the surest path to the glory of a new Britannia.”

Rather than targeting Muslims, Masterson chose instead to attack George Galloway – a left-wing politician with a strong record of support for both the Muslim community and the Palestinian cause. It’s the same far-right reasoning that motivated Breivik’s massacre on Utøya.

Neil Masterson backs Britain First and IDF Neil Masterson announcing his support for Britain First and wearing his Israel Defense Forces t-shirt

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    • “The three men called 999 and then got in Mr Galloway’s car to follow Masterson’s bus, despite police telling them not to.”

      That was a perspicacious move on Mr. Galloway’s part. Based on every single experience I have ever had with police in my own country, if Galloway had not done so the perpetrator would never, ever have been caught.

      Masterson wrote, “This country became great as a function of its vigorous prosecution [sic] of Catholicism over centuries: we excluded them from all forms of collective worship; public and civic life; etc etc…” How can somepony who says that England became great because of the persecution of Catholics accuse ANYPONY of being anti-Catholic?

      It’s good to see crimes like Masterson’s being prosecuted. Unfortunately, what’s most likely to happen is that the EDL members who serve time will, upon their release, be looked upon by the up-and-coming generation of haters as wise elders who have run the gauntlet. It’s happened before.

    • moraka

      Typical right-winger liar. If there are any Islamic country that institutes the dhimmi system, then they are in the extreme minority not to mention that the dhimmi system was never a second-class system. Thats typical of right-winger loons like you, desperate to justify your insanity and oppression of Muslim minorities and attacks on left-wingers with lies. Go back to your Hitler dildo.

    • Cengiz_K

      First of all, the offender is obviously not in his right mind, but nothing else could have been expected from a Zionutzee. I am not british, but I would be cautious about George Galloway, as well. This man is a lunatic, and to my knowledge an Assad supporter. I kinda liked him at one time, but his political affiliations are very dubious to say the least. I have the impression he is not very honest a guy, and might unfortunately not be someone he feigns to be. I derived my opinion from several appearances, talks and debates of his in british, arab and persian media. My two cents.

    • George Carty

      You got your JDL terrorists mixed up there – it was Earl Krugel who was murdered in prison. Irv Rubin committed suicide while awaiting trial.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      We are all a semi-protected underclass no matter where we live. If you really think you have a say in what your government does then you are either part of elite, incredibly sheltered or deluded. You oppose mass immigration, yet mass immigration is what is taking place. You oppose multiculturalism, yet its here and to stay. You pay taxes, yet the leaders don’t care what you think and you applauded your self and thump your chest with pride claiming your not a Dhimmi. In fact your situation is worse than that of a Dhimmi the Dhimmis weren’t ordered to think they have a say in the government and feel proud of it.

      What about equal rights for Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims in the West? Anyone whom is deemed a threat is terminated by the police forces, not just the US but in Europe as well. It’s easy to leave Islam, just stop practicing it, it’s impossible to stop being Black.

      There is a lot of selective reading on Fox News, CNN and there is a lot of censorship in the West as well, perhaps orders from your Pastor, Government Minder, or Zionist NSA Hunchback Google Operative. You don;t have the freedom you keep insisting to yourself you do. Stop day dreaming.

      Millions of spies keeping tabs on your opinion making sure you have been programmed in accordance to protocols you have not even seen, son.

    • Iman

      ” So, I ask you, as a man of all things fair” + ” Drug Addict ” I rest my case.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      He’s going get even more rage filled when he learns of the Australian twitter campaign called #I’llRideWithYou the zionists from all over the world are fuming over it like they’ve never fumed before.

      Tolerance and compassion really hurts their sensitivities.

    • cmyfe .

      The punishment and verdict would have been very different if it were the other way around. An Arab or Pakistani attacking a Zionist politician and shouting Islamic stuff.

    • mindy1

      I hope he feels good, and I hope the attacker rots >:(

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