From GB News and later the Telegraph
A convicted terrorist is suing a pub after he was allegedly “deeply offended” by a sign that “scared him”.
Khalid Baqa, 60, who has spent four years in prison for creating Jihadi propaganda, said that the “depiction of a bearded Arab/Turk” on the boozer’s sign “incites violence”.
He is now suing The Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire for almost £2,000, stating that the figure on the sign – which depicts a brown-skinned man of Arab or Turkish descent – is racist. If successful, the 60-year-old plans to take on 30 other pubs with the same name.
However, the landlord of the inn is fighting back against the lawsuit which he branded a “complete joke”. Speaking to The Sun, Robbie Hayes said: “This has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years. He’s just chancing his hand. Of course it worries me – you never know with people like this. We won’t be pushed around and change hundreds of years of history just because some loudmouth wants to cause trouble.”
Baqa, 60, has announced plans to extend his fight to 30 other establishments with the same name if he is successful. He filed the proposal at county court, previously known as the small claims court. Vexatious litigant springs to mind.
In his submission, Baqa claimed: “While walking through the area I was shocked and deeply offended by what I saw. I saw pub signage depicting a brown-skinned bearded Arab/Turk male with a turban and captioned The Saracen’s Head. This instilled worry and fear in me since it was clearly xenophobic, racist and inciting violence to certain people. I immediately complained to the pub and requested the signage be removed.”
Baqa was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2018 after being found with jihadist leaflets on the Tube. He admitted to five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications.
He claims to have contacted the pub on multiple occasions and visited in person but staff have said there is no record of this. He told The Sun: “I’ve always been offended by pub names like these but I’ve only recently discovered how I can challenge them online,” adding: “I’ve stopped all the terrorism stuff now.”
Baqa and the pub were approached by The Telegraph for comment.
Update – the Landlord of the Saracen’s Head (which has been on my list to visit and photograph for maybe 5 years, but, you know, life…) has suggested that other landlords of similarly named pubs join with him in a fund to defend any more silly actions.
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One Response
People do not know how to speak clearly.
If he claimed the sign is racist or offends him, I’d disagree on the former and understand but dismiss the latter, on the grounds that offense is meaningless.
But he also has to go farther and claim it “scares” him, which is patently ridiculous and part and parcel of that absurd trend in which people claim to be scared of things which are not frightening even in theory [we can all understand all sorts of things might be frightening even if they aren’t our particular fears, signs on businesses are not among these], and to go yet farther and claim it incites violence, which it does not and I suspect never has. As a pub, I’m sure it has hosted violence. I doubt any was ever caused by its name or signage.