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."
everyone afraid of backlash should be condemning, publicly, the crime committed.
Well said
Exactly! But their fear-mongering, propaganda-spreading, lying, cowardly leadership hasn't got the vision to do it.
The problem with that sector of the population is lack of education. They have no idea of ethical behavior in the greater society in which they find themselves.
"I'm bloody Muslim, and I'm afraid to go into the city"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good.
Go on offense.
Exactly my sentiments. Unlike the Muslim community in the US after 9/11, the Muslims in Britain now have opportunity to disassociate themselves from jihadi terrorists. They will probably have do bend over backwards a little before their sincerity will be accepted (mainly because they don't have past actions to fall back on....ie: a lousy reputation for being silent). It's funny that the biggest thing they are worrying about is getting their asses whupped.
> "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."
Poor baby. OK. This is just as bad as the bombings were. Lets call it even. (sarcasm off)
Damn those murdering Baddest monk terrorists!
That would be nice, yes. That's EXACTLY what I'm suggesting.
You have a problem with that?
I seem to often see Christians making statements like 'Muslims should be marching in protest' or 'rooting out the terrorists' but they can never tell me where they marched when Christian terrorists were attacking London or what they did to root them out.
Actions speak louder than words.
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.Um, if anyone's a scapegoat, it's the innocents that were killed in London, and for that matter, in Madrid, NYC, DC ... in other words, the innocent victims of Muslim terror.
Muslims are taking a page out of the American left's playbook and attempting to paint themselves as the victims, albeit potential ones. Everyone's down on the poor Muslims. Such bull@#$%.
As ever, if they sought to improve their image, they could start by ponying up with some names. I'm sure Scotland Yard is more receptive than ever to such assistance.
No. We're suggesting that they get into the habit of turning over the terrorists in their ranks to the authorities, work with said authorities to help convict such terrorists, and make loud public demonstrations of their opposition and intolerance of Islamic terror.
You're suggesting that's too much to ask? You're suggesting that the appropriate first response of "innocent" Muslims ought simply be to complain about fearing a backlash?
Are you for real?
Cry me a river.
I am sure there actually are many Muslim immigrants who do think of themselves as Brits first and who are not sympathetic to the terrorists. That said, however, there have been almost no incidents of "retaliatory" attacks on Muslims by non-Muslims, either in the US or Britain, and this is just more of the Islamic/liberal pity-party drivel.
That there is the problem...
And that, my friends, is the reason they will be attacked again and again. Close the mosques down. Every GD one. NOW!
I have little sympathy.
Let them be very afraid!
Actually, I meant exactly what he said I was suggesting.
True. But words at least speak louder than silence, which is all we see from Muslims these days (except for the constant whining about backlash).
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