A Muslim man is suing a pub landlord for his use of a sign that he believes is racist and has the potential to incite violence against Muslims.
A local Muslim resident of a town in England is taking a pub to court over what he considers to be the establishment’s “racist” sign, according to various reports in the UK media.
Khalid Baqa is suing the Saracen’s Head Inn in Chesham, Buckinghamshire for compensation due to the “racist” depiction of “a bearded Arab/Turk” on the pub’s sign, which Baqa claimed was “xenophobic” and “incites violence”, according to UK tabloid The Daily Mail.
Baqa has asked for £1,850 (around $2,300) in what was known as a ‘claim of money’ form against pub owner Robbie Hayes.
In his submission explaining the basis of his claim, Baqa stated that the sign – depicting a brown-skinned man of Arab or Turkish descent – “instilled worry and fear in me as it was clearly xenophobic, racist, and incited violence against certain people”.
“While walking through the area I was shocked and deeply offended by what I saw,” Baqa said.
“I saw pub signage depicting a brown-skinned bearded Arab/Turk male with a turban and captioned ‘The Saracen’s Head’,” he added.
Baqa pledged to take on more than 30 other establishments with similar names and signs if his case should prove to be successful.
Hayes claimed that Baqa was simply “chancing his arm” and had denied that the name of the pub or its sign was racist, claiming it had been called that for over 500 years.
“It’s a complete joke. This pub has been called The Saracen’s Head for 500 years,” Hayes said as reported by LBC.
“He’s just chancing his hand. Of course, it worries me — you never know with people like this.”
Baqa previously served jailed time for the alleged dissemination of “Jihadi propaganda”, several UK media outlets reported, for which he served four years in prison beginning in 2017.
However, the Barking man strongly denies any association with terrorism now.
The Saracen’s Head is the second most popular pub name in England behind The Red Lion, and while it might contain no racist intent within a modern context, the name and associated symbolism is rooted in the medieval persecution of and war against Muslims during the Crusades and Reconquista.
Brutal history
The symbol, of the head of a dark-skinned or black man in so-called Islamic garb, is known as the “Moor’s Head” or the “Maure“. In the High Middle Ages, crusaders and Christian Europeans referred to all Muslims as “Moors” or “Saracens”, both of which are now considered derogatory in personal use.
The depiction of disembodied “Moorish” or “Saracen” men was seen as a sign of the conquest of Islamic lands and the supremacy of Christian states and armies over them. Beheading, at the time, was considered the ultimate act of conquest over an enemy; hence its use in heraldry during the Crusader and Reconquista era.
The symbol has caused controversy in recent history, due to its continued inclusion on the flags of former Islamic areas of Europe, such as Corsica and Sardinia.
It is now a regular heraldic symbol, used in everything from the flags of provinces of Belgium and the crests of Scottish clans, all of which are connected to historic participation in the Crusades or Reconquista, the term used for the often brutal conquest of Islamic Spain and other former Muslim lands in Europe by Christian forces that spanned over 800 years from the early to late middle ages.
In Spain, far-right activists associated with the Vox party have occasionally used the symbols on flags or flown pre-existing Spanish provincial flags that had the symbol on them.
The symbol has often strongly been associated with the brewing industry and public houses, for reasons that historians don’t fully understand, though England played a prominent role in numerous Crusades, most notably The Third Crusade, led unsuccessfully by Richard the Lionheart to conquer Jerusalem in 1189.
In 2012, the Austrian Mohrenbrauerei Vertriebs KG brewery came under fire from anti-racist activists due to its use of the Moor’s head logo on its beer bottles.
