Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia

Salmond upholds liberties

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salmond upholds libertiesSalmond upholds liberties

By James Tweedie

Morning Star, 3 July 2007

Scottish civil liberties campaigners welcomed First Minister Alex Salmond’s insistence on Monday that the recent terror attacks must not be a pretext for increasing detention without charge to 90 days.

Speaking in the wake of the failed Glasgow airport car bomb attack, Mr Salmond said: “We have not been persuaded about the necessity for that, as, indeed, other parties haven’t. There is nothing in this incident which would affect that at the present moment, since we have in custody two people who are suspected of being involved in a terrorist incident.”

Scotland Against Criminalising Communities secretary Richard Haley said: “We are glad Alex Salmond has made these comments. The interests of justice will be served best if police stick to the tried and trusted methods contained in the ordinary criminal law and avoid using the divisive powers granted them under terrorism laws. When all is said and done, let’s remember that fewer people were hurt in the Glasgow airport incident than in the the football-related violence in Shettleston on the same day,” he pointed out.

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Fear lingers for Muslims relieved that suspects are not British

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Charlene Sweeney reports for The Times on fears of an anti-Muslim backlash in Scotland.

Fear lingers for Muslims relieved that suspects are not British

By Charlene Sweeney

The Times, 3 July 2007

On the streets of the Pollokshields suburb of Glasgow, home to Scotland’s largest Muslim population, there was a palpable sense of relief yesterday that the suspects being held in police custody for the terror attacks at Glasgow Airport and London were foreign nationals.

But there was also a lingering fear that the community would suffer reprisals simply for having brown skins.

Robina Chaudry, 39, a retail assistant who lives in the area, said: “I saw the bombings on TV and I feel really upset by it. White people looked down on Asians after the London bombings and I worry it will happen again. My kids go on the Underground every day and I fear for their safety.”

One retired man, who did not wish to be named, said that he had not heard of any backlash so far, but cautioned that the attacks could be used as an excuse for racism. “If these terrorists had been born or brought up in Scotland it might be different, but they don’t belong to our Asian community,” he said. “I think people will be tolerant – the Scots are in general – but there are fanatics in every society.”

Zeeshan Muhammed, 17, a pupil at Shawlands Academy who last month attended the country’s first Young Scottish Muslims conference, said that relations between Asians and other communities were in general good. However he admitted that last week’s terror threats could “change things”.

He said that he has already been the subject of taunts because of his faith.

“At school sometimes when I wear a [Muslim] cap they say, ‘Oh look, here’s Osama coming.’ Some are joking but others are serious.”

Across the wider Scottish Muslim community, faith leaders who feared racial tensions were encouraged by the news that the suspects were not British.

Bashir Maan, Scottish representative for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The community was very tense to begin with but since the new developments, that the attackers were foreign nationals, there is some relief – and also some hope – that things will not get as bad.”

But Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, argued that the backlash that followed the 9/11 atrocity in New York and the 7/7 suicide bombings in London was also possible in Scotland.

“Muslims are victims of these atrocities too and what makes it even more galling is that we’re also at the centre of a storm where everyone is pointing the finger of suspicion at us,” he said.

Backlash fears as Asian newsagent is firebombed in Glasgow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glasgow shop fireFears of a backlash against Muslims are rising tonight in the wake of the car bomb plot. It came as a Pakistani-born Scotsman’s newsagents was ram-raided and fire-bombed in Glasgow. Racial incidents rose in the days after the July 7 bombings and there was a similar backlash after the September 11 attack.

Tonight a prominent Muslim leader spoke of his fears of a “rising hostility” towards the Asian community. Osama Saeed, the Muslim Association of Britain’s Scottish spokesman, made the warning as police launched an investigation into the attack on a newsagent’s in the early hours of the morning.

In a chilling echo of the attack at Glasgow Airport on Saturday, a car was reversed at speed into the shop, crashing through metal shutters before the driver apparently dosed it with petrol and set it alight. As he fled – in a second vehicle with waiting driver – explosions ripped through the shop causing a massive fire.

Mr Saeed said: “This incident sounds very much like it is some sort of copycat crime, which is extraordinary because someone would have gone to the trouble of premeditating that attack. It is not an emotional reaction. They’ve waited, they’ve got the car and the materials. It suggests there is a rising feeling of hostility where people feel comfortable in the company of others acting in a grotesque fashion.”

On Monday, fire bombers attacked what they thought was the rear of the Islamic Centre, in Bathgate, West Lothian. But they mistakenly damaged an adjacent estate agency.

Speaking of his fears of a backlash Mr Saeed said: “In some ways it was expected as there was a backlash after September 11 and 7/7. But we have got to stress to people we are in this together and we are all in the same boat. We have all been victims.”

Daily Mail, 3 July 2007

Police vow to clamp down on anti-Muslim backlash

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glasgow car bombPolice chiefs and senior politicians moved to reassure Scotland’s Muslim communities yesterday amid fears of a backlash after the terrorist incident at Glasgow airport.

As police waited to question the two men arrested after the failed car bomb attack, the justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, said neither was “born and bred” in Scotland. “Any suggestion to be made that they are homegrown terrorists is not true,” he said. Police said two minor incidents of racist abuse had been reported since the attacks but promised to clamp down on any backlash.

Mohammad Sarwar, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, said constituents had been threatened since the incident. But he said there was no evidence that any of Scotland’s imams or mosques had been fomenting hatred. “The message is moderate and liberal,” he said. “Glasgow airport is used by a vast majority of Muslims and people of all faiths. This attack was an attack on all of us, on our city and our communities.”

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said there had “not been a peep of extremism” in Scotland to date, adding: “You hear about individuals and groups in London and elsewhere in England, but there has been no presence of this here.”

Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, also said the attack was out of character. “Scottish society is very strong, with a strong sense of community,” he said. “In Scotland, the Muslim community is part of the fabric of society, and is hugely important for social life, and this community link will remain strong.”

Guardian, 2 July 2007

See also Daily Record, 2 July 2007

And Osama Saeed’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 1 July 2007

London mayor defends Muslims as bomb plot foiled

Posted on by Bob Pitt

London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to demonize Muslims after a double car bomb plot was foiled in the capital, amid fears of a Islamist terror threat. “In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims,” he told BBC Radio. “They have played a good and active and growing role in creating a multi-cultural society,” he added.

He noted that terrorist acts had been carried out in London over the years by various groups including for example far-right groups. For years the British capital was wracked by violence by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It was crucial to understand “that that doesn’t mean that all white men are potentially a threat to society any more than all Muslims are,” he added.

AFP, 30 June 2007