The owner of a historic pub called The Saracen’s Head has told how he could be forced to close the business after being attacked by a convicted terrorist for his “racist” name.
Simon Belsey, 49, fears the 300-year-old inn on the banks of the River Wye in Hereford will have to close after receiving two legal letters from Khalid Baqa.
It is claimed that the radical has drawn up a target list of more than 30 pubs with signs which he claims have given him “concern and fear” because they “incite violence”.
Former lorry driver Belsey told how The Saracen’s Head is one of three pubs left in the area after the cost of living crisis and Covid had a devastating impact on local traders.
He took over the management of the Grade I listed pub just seven months ago with his Portuguese partner Vanda Oliveira, 56, but has been forced to work as a bus driver in the city three days a week because the establishment does not earn enough money . yours.
Now he insists a costly legal battle could be the final nail in the coffin of the watering hole affectionately known to locals as The Saggs.
He told MailOnline: “It’s a travesty – this man has chosen to live in the UK and is now trying to change our rich history and culture.”
‘The pub’s name dates back to 1705, clergymen visiting Hereford Cathedral used to stable their horses here.
“He is The Head of the Saracen and will continue to be The Head of the Saracen.”
Simon Belsey, 49, fears the 300-year-old Saracen’s Head pub on the banks of the River Wye in Hereford may have to close after receiving two legal letters from jihadist Khalid Baqa.
Khalid Baqa (pictured), who was jailed for four years for preparing jihadist propaganda, has sparked outrage by trying to win almost £2,000 from Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
Baqa plans to extend its fight to another 30 establishments (pictured, The Saracen’s Head in Hereford)
Baqa, 60, sparked a firestorm of protests this week after the owner of another pub called Saracen’s Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, revealed he was being sued over the pub’s “deeply offensive” sign.
Baqa has lodged a claim at the county court demanding £1,850 for his representation of a “bearded, dark-skinned Arab”.
Saracen is a term used to describe an Arab or Muslim, particularly at the time of the Crusades.
It has since emerged that Baqa plans to extend its fight to another 30 establishments.
Now Belsey has revealed she has received two letters from Baqa, with the latest threatening legal action unless the pub changes its name within seven days.
Father-of-one Belsey sought legal advice when the first letter arrived by recorded delivery two months ago, accusing him of displaying an offensive pub sign.
It said: ‘I have recently learned that the signs in your pub depict a man in a brown turban with the legend The Saracen’s Head.
“I find this highly offensive, xenophobic, racist, inciting and glorifying violence against a certain type of people and extremely discriminatory.”
Mr. Belsey’s lawyer advised him to ignore it; Then, two weeks ago, a second, more threatening letter arrived.
It said: “I have no alternative but to take legal action if the sign is not removed within the next seven days.”
An angry Mr Belsey said: “The advice is still to ignore it, but if I get something official through the courts that could change things.”
‘I only took over the pub in May and it’s a struggle. I don’t have the money to challenge this. It could shut us down.
Belsey insisted he was determined not to back down, adding of the pub’s name: “It’s part of Britain’s diverse history, it can’t be rewritten or changed.”
‘If we give in, how long will it be until people are told, “I don’t like your son’s name, change it?”
Pub owner Robbie Hayes (pictured), of the Saracens Head Inn in Amersham, has vowed to fight the lawsuit, calling it “a complete joke”.
Saracen is a term used to describe an Arab or Muslim, particularly at the time of the Crusades (pictured, Saracens Head Inn in Amersham, Buckinghamshire)
“My partner is Portuguese, it wouldn’t occur to her to come here and impose her culture on anyone.”
Father-of-seven Baqa, a Muslim from Barking, Essex, has been convicted twice of terrorism offences.
He was working as a revenue officer at Hackney Council when he was first arrested in the run-up to the London Olympics.
In April 2013 he was jailed for two years at the Old Bailey after 352 computer disks were found on him containing terrorist material, including 26 hours of speeches by famous hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.
The court heard that police found footage of executions, detonations of explosive devices, the last will and testament of one of the London attackers, and footage of the 9/11 attacks and jihadist fighters hiding in his car and rooms. of his children.
Baqa pleaded guilty to two counts of disseminating terrorist publications.
In February 2017, he was arrested when a Heathrow-bound flight he was on was diverted to Stansted Airport and escorted by fighter jets due to an unrelated “disruptive passenger”. He was convicted of insurance fraud that same year.
In July 2018, Baqa was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after he was found to have hidden terrorist propaganda on a bookshelf and in the ceiling of a hospital prayer room.
Baqa placed jihadist material, including hate speech CDs and extremist leaflets, on a shelf and vault in the chapel of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.
Baqa was heavily criticized by staff and punters working at The Saracen’s Head in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire.
The Saracen’s Head at Kings Langley features a Saracen brandishing a sword.
He also left 15 audio tracks encouraging radicalization in the prayer room at University College Hospital in Euston.
Baqa printed extremist leaflets on a photocopier and recruited an “impressionable” 17-year-old boy to help him distribute them.
The Old Bailey learned he had been caught when a tube driver found a discarded bag full of leaflets on a train at East Ham station.
He pleaded guilty to five counts of disseminating terrorist publications.
Baqa disappeared from view until a “claim for money” form was lodged against the Saracens Head Inn in Amersham, which was built in 1530 from old ship timber.
The name is among the most popular for pubs in the United Kingdom.
In his formal presentation, Baqa wrote: ‘As I walked through the area I was shocked and deeply offended by what I saw.
‘I saw posters in a pub depicting a bearded, dark-skinned Arab/Turkish man with a turban and the legend “The Saracen’s Head.”
‘This made me worried and afraid as it was clearly xenophobic, racist and inciting violence towards certain people. I immediately complained to the pub and requested that the posters be removed.
Baqa later said of the legal action: “I have always been offended by pub names like these but only recently discovered how I can challenge them online.”
‘It really makes me anxious. It makes me feel insecure. I’ve already stopped the whole terrorism thing.’
Amersham pub owner Robbie Hayes, 52, said: “It’s a complete joke.” This pub has been called Saracens Head for 500 years.
You’re just risking your hand. Of course it worries me, you never know with people like that.
MailOnline visited another Saracens Head pub in Towcester, near Northampton, where punters were equally offended by Baqa and his demands.
Inside one corner of the Kings Langley pub, with its oak beams and low ceilings, is a fireplace with half a dozen ornaments depicting a Saracen’s head.
“No one in this pub is racist, we don’t think the sign is racist and the name is just historic.”
“We will not allow ourselves to be pressured into changing hundreds of years of history just because some loudmouth wants to cause trouble.”
But Baqa’s claim is just the latest example of pubs across the UK coming under fire for historic names.
In several cases, owners have been forced to back down when a complaint was made, despite overwhelming support from free speech advocates and regular customers.
Last month, a pub called The Midget changed its name following complaints from campaigners.
The Abingdon Inn was named in the 1970s after the world famous MG sports car which was built in the Oxfordshire town.
But the pub’s owners, Greene King, renamed it The Roaring Raindrop after Dr Erin Pritchard, a lecturer in disability studies at Liverpool Hope University, called the nickname “disablist hate speech” and “a derogatory insult.” ” against people with dwarfism, who started a petition that gathered more than 1,300 signatures.
More than 5,000 people signed a counter-petition but to no avail as the watering hole reopened on December 13 under the new name which bosses said would ensure the pub “can be a place where everyone feels welcome”.
In 2022, Greene King also performed in The Black Bitch in Linlithgow, West Lothian.
The 350-year-old pub is named after a black greyhound which appears on the town’s heraldic shield and symbolizes a well-known local legend about a hunting dog who saved its master’s life.
Just four years ago, a statue commemorating the “black bitch” was unveiled in the city center.
The pub was renamed The Willow Tree despite a petition which gathered over 11,000 signatures and hundreds of people protesting outside the pub.