Muslim family’s home fire-bombed in Co Antrim

The PSNI are treating as a religious hate crime the fire-boming of a Muslim man's home in Co Antrim in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

Amin Ibrahim (48), his wife Margaret (54) and their children Sarah (19) and Muhammad (17) were in the house at Kintyre Park in the Ballykeel One estate in Ballymena when a petrol bomb was thrown through aliving room window.

“I ran down the stairs to put the flames out and was in my bare feet and cut my feet on the broken glass,” Mr Ibrahim said.

“Over the years there have been many attacks on our home.

“There have been smashed windows, damaged cars, throwing eggs, calling you names and have written things like ‘Bin Laden’ and ‘go home to where you came from’ but it has never stopped me living here.

Cowards

“The people who did this are cowards who cannot show their faces and come in the middle of the night . . . Instead of having a broken window we could be having four bodies going to the graveyard,” he said.

“It is a shame. We were all disgusted at the Paris attacks. We are human beings like anybody else and have feelings.”

Supt Ryan Henderson said: “We are treating the attack as a religious hate crime.