Posted on 07/08/2005 12:59:23 PM PDT by 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."
"If the speeding in some way harmed someone then, yes. I'm very careful in choosing my words so I meant what I wrote and there was a reason. The acts of terrorism is usually proceeded by other criminal acts like buying the components used to make bombs, being illegal in a country, etc... Argue with that fact."
I won't argue at all with that fact, it's common sense. But now you're talking about activities that support terrorist attacks again whereas, if I answer on that basis, you tell me not to take your words out of context.
The things you say with regards to the Islamists are generally true. However your convoluted attempts to lump the entire body of world Islam in with the terrorists harm your case, as anyone capable of clear thinking and reading comprehension can see the logical holes.
If we were to accept your argument, moreover, it would greatly harm the progression of our struggle against the terrorists, as we would be handing to Osama Bin Laden on a plate the thing that he has always desired most - a war between a polarised Islamic world and Western civilisation.
Tell me what faction of Islam is the "Religion of Peace"?
Go ahead and think whatever you want, toby.
Just don't expect to be taken seriously.
Good day.
"Tell me what faction of Islam is the "Religion of Peace"?"
That's kind of a meaningless question. I know some Muslims who I would describe as peaceful. Well, actually I wouldn't, because it would never occur to me to apply that adjective to any of my friends, I kinda take it as a given, but hey. Feel free to come over and meet them.
If the worst that has yet happened is a headscarf being pulled, and a lot of hate e mail, they have gotten off VEERRRRRY easy!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8523140/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4663411.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4665133.stm
You go ahead with your theory of Good Muslim and Bad Muslim and I'll continue with mine regardless how seriously one wants to take it.
none. (according to the Quran)
"Feel free to come over and meet them"
Sounds like a trap to me.
Stop your deliberate distortions to protect a cult of hate. You know damn well that anyone can do something in the name of a religion or cult but the VAST majority of Christians would not support shooting up an abortion clinic. The MoHamMuds however, show their support of terrorism by their almost total silence.
Would you feel the same if the outrage were directed at members of the KKK? I for one, and I am sure there are many more, believe that Islime is worse than the KKK. Both need to be exterminated.
30+ years of this trash commiting terrorist acts and the "Religion of Peace" fools remaining silent tells me they, as a group, support the terrorist and are in no way "innocent people".
It's God's word about the sinful nature of ALL of us, and our need for redemption.
You have failed to make your point, so you have resorted to saying I've said things that I haven't said.
I call that lying. It's a sin. And without God's redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, you should suffer eternal punishment for it. (As do I for my sins).
That's my only point, toby. And if you choose to ignore it, so be it.
The starting point is to get islime declared an anti-woman, anti-Jew, anti-Christian, hate cult which is NOT protected by the First Amendment. Once that is done, we can use the rest of our legal arsenal to start ridding the USA of this cancer.
If on the other hand, we continue to use the word religion in conjunction with islime then we have tied our own hands and can do nothing but stand by while they plot the next attack on innocent citizens.
If you wish to know my (Scripture based) views on anything, please scroll back and read them.
I've said all I intend to say on this thread.
"Just for the record, I know one who lives in Milwaukee that doesn't know a single terrorist."
I call that lying because I didn't write terrorist, I wrote criminal act.
If your statements aren't about good Muslim, bad Muslim then which one are they? Are they bad until redemption then suddenly turn good? Is blowing people up just "sinful nature" or is it pure evil?
Continue your forgiving ways. I consider forgiving them again a form of appeasement because they'll think that they can get by with it time and time again and gain sympathy time and time again.
"Your faux claims of some kind of outrage against me are laughable considering what you and yours have said and done to the US President and America since 9/11"
"But since then with your marches, hate filled rhetoric for our President and our people have been very telling"
"Read your own lectures Canard, you are proud of the "millions" of "ordinary" Brits who marched in support of Saddam and Sons, carrying signs calling a US President Hitler. Your solidarity extends to only the US leftists who hate America."
Once again your apparant belief that you know me is puzzling.
Of course.
I'll assume that your 'misunderstanding' of what I've said is deliberate, since I have no reason to believe you were ever interested in genuine dialogue. Your hyperbole and false charges have made that very clear.
Good bye, Toby.
I have understood exactly what you've said and what you've meant but once again I won't fall for this good Muslim sympathy number. Get 10 million Muslims together in Mecca and you won't hear one apology for their crimes. Talk is cheap and ineffective so that's why I prefer missiles. May cost a bit more but boy do they shut em up real quick.
Ba Bye
I will get out of His way as He speaks to you, because I'm clearly not getting through. I'll just pray that HE does.
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