Muslims Crowding London's Mosques Say They Fear Backlash in Aftermath of Bombings

AP ^ | Jul 8, 2005 | Jill Lawless

[phoenix_004]

Thousands of Muslims crowded London mosques for Friday prayers, condemning the bombings, but also wary they could be made scapegoats and fearful of reprisals against their growing and vibrant community. At the East London Mosque, near the site of one of Thursday's attacks, an imam told the 8,000 worshippers to be "confident in our identity" as part of London's multicultural fabric.

The mosque said it had received hate e-mails and a telephone threat to disrupt Friday prayers. A few police officers stood outside during the prayers, which ended peacefully.

Outside, some Muslims said the attacks had made them more cautious on the streets, but others said they were secure in their identity as Londoners - confident of the city's tolerant traditions.

"It will have some impact on people. But this is London, a cosmopolitan city," said student Ali Ayubi. "Maybe after one or two months it will go back to normal."

At the huge brick mosque in an East End neighborhood that's home to many with roots in Pakistan and Bangladesh, imam Sheikh Abdul Qayyum told worshippers that Muslims were "part of the rich diversity of British life."

"At this difficult time, some people in our community may feel insecure purely because they are Muslims, but these terrible events have nothing to do with us. The Muslims of London are victims as much as their fellow citizens," he said.

All of Britain's major Muslim groups condemned the bombings, which killed dozens and wounded more than 700. But some feared they would be blamed for the bombings, which police said bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida.

"This morning I was driving to work and a woman on the radio said she'd had her headscarf pulled. I was shocked, to be honest," said Ahmed Shafi, 31, a grocery store manager. "In this day and age you don't expect that."

Almost 1 million of London's 8 million people are Muslims. They're inseparable from the fabric of the city's society and its history. From the opulent glitz of Harrods department store - owned by Egyptian-born Mohammed al Fayed - to the kebab shops that dot the city's streets, Muslims have long been part of London's glamour and its grit.

Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed that Islam was not the culprit in the bombings.

"We know that these people act in the name of Islam, but we also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims, here and abroad, are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this act of terrorism every bit as much as we do," he said Thursday.

That message was underscored by Muslims on the streets.

"Many Muslims are British. They have lived here for years. What happens to London happens to them," said Suraiya Zammath, a Bangladeshi woman visiting relatives in London. "This should not be singled out as 'Islamic terrorists.' That destabilizes the community."

Abdul Mukith, a 37-year-old supermarket worker in Brick Lane, the heart of London's Bangladeshi community, agreed.

"What's religion got to do with it?" he asked. "I'm bloody Muslim, and I'm afraid to go into the city" just like anyone else in the aftermath of the attacks.

Still, some feared a backlash. The Muslim Council of Britain said it had been deluged with hate e-mails, which caused its server to crash late Thursday. Though it was up and running Friday, the council said it was still getting a steady stream of vitriolic missives.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said Friday that police were aware of one or two "very minor incidents" involving backlash against Muslims, but he didn't elaborate.

He said that so far, "Britain with its liberal and welcoming approach to people is taking this in its stride. I'm very proud of that."

Representatives of several religious faiths held a silent prayer vigil Friday in a street near Aldgate subway station, where seven people died.

"There is a worry, but I think we can overcome this because we have been working with all the communities together," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, chairman of the East London Mosque.

"As Muslims, as British citizens, as Londoners, we are confident nothing will happen to us. We have to face it with resilience and with confidence."

But Shafi feared he and other Muslims would endure animosity in the coming days and weeks.

"I'm a practicing Muslim, I've got a beard. After 9/11 people called me bin Laden," he said. "But I was born and brought up here, and I don't consider myself anything but British."

[Sonar5]

You Said:
" Have you read the bible? It does the same thing (Exodus 23:20)"

Ummm Hellooo, Exodus is in the Old Testament, try reading the New Testament, for if you had you would realize the difference but I suspect you do not know the difference as your ignorance on this topic here shows us.

[roses of sharon]

Drama troll, comes here to lecture YOU on humanity, LOL.

[Black Tooth]

They just reported via the radio that almost 5% of Britain's population is now Muslim.

[Canard]

"Please read the rest of the statement and then you explain how you would defeat the enemy and you're expertise on identification of the enemy?"

We'll defeat them the same way we've always defeated terrorists.

"If one can't identify through separation then the only alternative is to group and treat them all like enemy until proved they are not."

Now you explain how, if my country today starts treating a million and a half of our people as 'the enemy' as you suggest that would be anything other than the biggest boost Al Qaeda has ever received.

[Nowhere Man]

If I was living in London today, I would single out a Muslim individual and follow them everywhere. Keep tracking their every movements for a minimum of 48 hours.

I remember a little bit after 9-11, I remember seeing a moslem lady in a headscarf in our local mall. Me, I usually lug a police scanner and sometimes a 2 meter handie-talkie (I'm an amateur radio operator) wherever I go. I had the clipped to my belt, I was wearing shades an I have a jacket that resembles an FBI or BATF jacket. She was really eyeing me up, for a while it would have seemed I was following her but I just happened to just go in the same stores and departments she was in, but she did give me the evil eye once or twice like I was going to haul her off into the paddy wagon or something. If I wasn't so nearsighted, I would have loved to wear those mirrored shades that would have made me look like a 1970's era prison guard, I'd like to see their faces at that. >B-)

[Tax Government]

Residency permits should be pulled when people attend a mosque that teaches anything resembling islamic militancy.

[Sonar5]

yeah well, I suspect the 8 major schools as you put it are financing, aiding and abetting these terrorist islamo fascist scum.

[NRA2BFree]

At the huge brick mosque in an East End neighborhood that's home to many with roots in Pakistan and Bangladesh, imam Sheikh Abdul Qayyum told worshippers that Muslims were "part of the rich diversity of British life."

Yeah, what "RICH DIVERSTITY OF BRITISH LIFE" do they bring? Death, Destruction, but I don't see anything else. They may underestimate the Brits, and their tolerance for Islam!

[Canard]

I notice you left barely a few hours pass after the attacks yesterday before you started posting snide little attacks on the integrity of the British public.

Thanks for that.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The IRA "Christian" terrorists got ZERO support from:

• the example of the founder of the Christian religion
• the commandments of the founder of the Christian religion
• any pope, cardinal, bishop, or other religious official, either in Rome or in Ireland
• any document, declaration, broadcast, or publication, at any time, associated in any official way with the Catholic Church.

  (In fact, the predecessors of the IRA--- the Fenians and the IRB --- were secret organizations whose members swore an oath, before God, to take their orders from the Brotherhood. This led to problems with the Catholic Church who went so far as to excommunicate members who took such an oath. Later on, IRA-Provo's and their supporters --- including, admittedly, the occasional sympathetic priest --- were told that they should not receive communion; they should effectively "excommunicate themselves.")

  By way of contrast, the Islamic terrorists operate with the support of:

• the example of the founder of religion of Islam
• the commandments of the founder of the religion of Islam
• hundreds of religious officials, in Britain and in dozens of Islamic countries
• countless documents, declarations, broadcasts, and publications, officially produced and distributed by Islamic institutes, Universities, mosques, madrassas, "fraternal" and "charitable" groups.

  Other than that, of course, they're just the same...

[Nowhere Man]

You Muslims better get on the stick and kill the cancer in your midst or a free and democratic people will start ripping out your hearts and lungs trying to find these b*stards among you...

IIRC, I do believe they also hit targets in India too, it seems like they are doing a good job getting everyone mad at them, first the Jewish and Christian nations, now they will get the Hindu nations mad at them as well as perhaps the Buddhists. If this keeps up, they won't have a friend left in the world, you might see a Jewish/Christian/Hindu/Buddhist alliance go after them. I remember Michael Savage was saying one night that "Americans are a tolerant people but there are limits to that tolerance," when and where that line will be tripped, I don't know, but recently we have seen the otherwise uber-tolerant Dutch starting to turn a bit so who knows?

[tobyhill]

"We'll defeat them the same way we've always defeated terrorists."

That sounds like a liberal escape route. How would you defeat them? Not some generic subjective answer.

They would have nothing to worry about if they prove they're not the enemy. I wish they would all claim to be Al Qaeda because that makes them a free target.

[mlc9852]

Muslims are told to kill the infidels. That's anyone who isn't Muslim. An evil and wicked "religion".

[Nowhere Man]

Terrorism targets the innocent. Abortionists are hardly innocent, they end human lives as a career. A crime, yes, but no, not terrorism.

I think a huge difference too is most terrorist acts coming from Christians, "non-Moslems" and whatnot tend to be a loner or a small group acting on their own but with Moslem groups, you have more of a worldwide network of various terrorist groups that work more or less together and with sanction of a few nationstates like Syria, Iran, or back in the 1980's, Libya. Adding to that, again in the 1980's, you had some tacid approval of the USSR and the KGB as well, but if their "clients" went too far, they would jerk their chains in. Of course, you do have your exceptions like perhaps groups like the Ayran Brotherhood types, but still when you match them against the Moslem organizations, they are peanuts compared to the likes of Al Quaida and Hezbollah although it wouldn't surprise me if those groups would assist the Neo-Nazis too. For the most part, with the exception of the Neo-Nazis, most small group or lone terrorists don't seek world domination nor want to impose dhimmitude or kill non-believers.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Oh. And I forgot to add: Clerics (deacons, priests, bishops, etc) are forbidden by Canon Law to bear arms. And anyone, clerical or lay, who dies while in possession of arms, is by that very fact excluded from consideration as a "martyr."

The Catholic idea of "martyr" is almost the diametrical opposite of the Islamic idea. You'll notice that none of the warriors of 2000 years of Christendom --- not Charlemagne, not Charles Martel, not Baldwin, not Raymond, not Tancred, not Don John of Austria, not Philip of Spain not Jan Sobieski of Poland--- not one of them is honored by the Catholic Church as either saint or martyr.

Only two warriors I can think of, offhand, who were canonized were St. Joan of Arc and St. Louis IX of France...and the latter was not lauded for his prowess or success at war, but for his justice and charity.

Hmm. Interesting.

[HKMk23]

Okay. That's a nice first step.

Now, when's the big press confernce with all of the British Muslim leaders jointly condemnig the bombings?

Then, when is the big Muslim Rally Against Terror scheduled at Wembly Stadium?

[Canard]

" That sounds like a liberal escape route. How would you defeat them? Not some generic subjective answer."

Don't ask a generic subjective question if you don't want a generic subjective answer. What exactly are you looking for? Ultimately we win because AQ don't get what they desire - a polarised conflict between a radical Islamic entity and the rest of the World. Unfortunately, some people seem to think that the only way to win is to facilitate the conflict that AQ want and then defeat them militarily in some huge bloodbath. I disagree.

If you were asking specifically what tactics should be used, then that would obviously depend on specific situations.

[roses of sharon]

Oh please, snide attacks are your specialty! You can take it, as can your anti-American compatriots, there and in America.

The BBC, the NYT, the Arab press in London, the Major of London, the masses of the British public who march against the President of the United States calling him vile, more dangerous than Saddam or OBL, call him Hitler, a murderer, sinister, a liar, would kill for oil, a stupid cowboy Christian, our soldiers are "occupiers".

And you lecture about integrity?

[roses of sharon]

Where is the Fatwa by Muslim clerics against OBL?

NOWHERE.