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Tikriti said MAB "has registered some 70
verbal assaults, particularly against hijab-clad Muslims," since
Thursday.
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Additional Reporting By Ahmed Fathy, IOL Staff
CAIRO, July 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)
No sooner had the London blasts taken place than racist attacks against
mosques in Britain, the US and New Zealand were reported.
Anas Al-Tikriti, the spokesman of the Muslim Association of
Britain (MAB), told IslamOnline.net Sunday, July 10, an arsonist attacked
a mosque in central London and tried to set it on fire.
Media reports, however, said at least five mosques have come
under racist attacks, including one in northwest England
set on fire, since the attacks that killed 50 people
and injured 700 others on Thursday, July 7.
A man living in a flat above the Shahjalal Mosque, which is
part of an Islamic centre in Birkenhead ,
was treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries,
according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The mosque door was burnt and there was some damage inside,
Merseyside police said.
London
police said Sunday there had been a number of racially and
religiously-motivated hate crimes since the terror bombings, including one
resulting in a serious injury.
"We have had a number of incidents of hate crime, racially
and religiously motivated offences, and we take these types of offences
very, very seriously," Commander Brian Paddick of the London Metropolitan
Police told a press briefing.
"There has been one serious injury."
The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
said in June that the Muslim minority in Britain
has been living in a "climate of fear" since the 9/11
attacks.
Hotline
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British Muslims condemned in unison the
London
blasts.
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Tikriti told IOL "MAB has registered some 70 verbal assaults,
particularly against hijab-clad Muslims, since Thursday, July 7, when
London was
attacked."
The assaults included offensive phrases like "wicked Islam",
"go home" and "you are behind the blasts" as well as emotional outbursts
in the face of Muslims, he added.
Tikriti, who championed a list of anti-war activists that
vied in the European elections in Yorkshire and the Humber constituency in June of last year, said that
two old couples insulted a hijab-clad woman, but she was protected by
passers-by.
The activist said that MAB has established a hotline to
receive complaints from British Muslims about racist attacks.
He further said that they will embark on a series of social
activities and media campaigns to show the true face of Islam in addition
to sin-ins and peaceful marches.
"MAB staged a sit-in on Friday, July 8, in cooperation with
anti-Iraq war and anti-WMDs movements to condemn the blasts and show
solidarity with the families of the victims," he said.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission has given British Muslims
a set of safety tips
to avoid reprisal attacks following the bombings.
Media Onslaughts
Tikriti feared that the media would unleash new anti-Islam
campaigns in the wake of the blasts.
"I assume that right-wing and Zionist media, like The Daily
Telegraph and The Sun, will mount their anti-Islam campaigns in the days
to come, parroting hoary-old claims like Islam was encouraging the killing
of infidels and terrifying civilians," he told IOL.
The Muslim activist further said that such media onslaughts
are aimed at pitting the Britons against the Muslim minority as it
happened in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
He citied a Friday article by Charles Moore in The Daily
Telegraph entitled "Where is the Gandhi of Islam?"
"But we cant ignore the fact that there are some leading
newspapers that do justice to Muslims and Islam like The Guardian and The
Independent," Tikriti said.
Senior British parliamentarians admitted in August of last
year that anti-terrorism laws are being used "disproportionately" against
the Muslim minority.
Domino Effect
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" New
Zealand 's Muslim community, like all
New Zealand 's
communities, is overwhelmingly a law-abiding and peaceful
community," said Clark
.
|
The London attacks have
already had their domino effect with at least six Islamic centers in
New Zealand
vandalized and their walls painted with the message
"Londoners RIP," police said Sunday.
In what appeared to be a co-coordinated series of attacks
across Auckland
, vandals smashed windows and doors and left variations of the
same message in black paint on walls facing the street, AFP said.
New Zealand Federation of Islamic Associations President
Javed Khan said it was the first time an attack on this scale had occurred
against the country's 40,000 Muslims, about 25,000 of whom live in
Auckland
.
He said Muslims were "shocked and saddened" by the incidents
in London and appealed to his community to
be calm and tolerant of the overnight attacks in Auckland .
Prime Minister Helen Clark was quick to condemn the attacks,
saying it was wrong to target the Muslim minority in New Zealand in retaliation for the
terrorist attacks in London .
" New
Zealand 's Muslim community, like all New Zealand
's communities, is overwhelmingly a law-abiding and peaceful
community," she said.
Opposition National Party leader Don Brash said the attacks
were "an appalling act of intolerance" and the Green Party described the
attackers as no better than the terrorists who brought death to London .
In the US
, the FBI and members of its Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating
a fire at a Bloomington mosque in
Minnesota
on Saturday as a hate crime, the American Indy Star
newspaper reported Sunday.
The incident took place at the Islamic Center of Bloomington,
where a ground-floor window was broken and an incendiary device was used
to start a fire, an official of the mosque said.