MIAN KHURSHEED, Reuters
Muslims fear what the future may hold
By Hassan M. Fattah The New York Times
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2005
LEEDS, England As news of the police killing of a young Asian man in
connection with the bombings in London spread through Muslim neighborhoods on
Friday, many people braced for a significant rise in tensions.
In sermons and special announcements Friday, the Muslim day of prayer,
community leaders and imams warned worshipers of increasing tensions and urged
them to assist the police as much as possible with investigations.
"Everybody's shocked that these things have gone on," a Leeds city
council member, Mohammed Iqbal, told worshipers at the Kashmir Muslim Welfare
Association, also known as the Hardy street mosque, in Leeds. "It should be
clear to us all that these kinds of events are a threat to our freedom."
Community leaders are especially concerned that anti-immigrant groups may
take advantage of the situation and inflame tensions. In recent days, community
leaders said, the far-right British National Party has attempted to organize
meetings in the city, possibly to agitate for new laws against immigrants.
"The BNP are looking for opportunities to take advantage of this," Iqbal
said. "Tell your kids from now, not to fall into the hands of the BNP."
The Muslim Council of Britain on Friday demanded that the police explain
why an Asian-looking man had been shot and killed at the Stockwell Underground
station in south London. The incident came a day after apparent would-be
suicide bombers hit London's mass transport system and two weeks after four
suspected Islamist suicide bombers on trains and a bus killed 56 people,
including the bombers.
"This is going to have a big impact on the Muslim community, and in a
massive way," said Muserith Sujawal, 31, who spent Friday afternoon encouraging
Muslims to join a peace march planned for Saturday.
She said the latest incidents made her effort more important. "This
damages community relations very badly, and we have to work hard to defend
them."
The effect of the killing Friday could be all the more incendiary if
subsequent investigations identify the man as a Muslim. "This operation is
targeted at criminals," Ian Blair, the London police chief said on Friday,
apparently to head off accusations that Muslims were being unfairly singled
out. "It is not targeted at any community or any section of the community."
But Nakib Islam, 19, a Muslim high school student who was speaking after
a bomb alert at an East London mosque turned out to have been a hoax, said, "I
am afraid of a stronger backlash" against Muslims."
"We all have to use the Tube and people who look like me all became
suspicious," he said. "I even don't wear my rucksack anymore when I use the
Tube because of that."
Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said
Muslims with whom he had spoken Friday morning were "jumpy and nervous."
"We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are
distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy," he said.
In East London on Friday, the police cordoned off a mosque after
receiving a bomb threat, raising fresh fears there. The mosque, whose doors and
windows were set ablaze in an apparent hate crime after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States, received its first bomb threat ever, leaders
said.
"We can only stop all this when we are able to find the people who
brainwashed the kids," said Abu Mumin, a worshiper at the mosque, who would not
disclose his last name for fear of reprisal. He said the community was working
diligently to cooperate with the police, and the latest incidents were likely
to increase that cooperation. But ultimately, the road ahead may be difficult.
"We have a feeling that something changed for us in this country after
this incident," Iqbal said.
"It's clear, everybody's worried and stunned," he said. "This is a
continuing attempt at endangering democracy and our freedom. We are part of
this society, and what damages it, damages us."
Souad Mekhennet in London contributed reporting for this article.
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