Racist attacks in Scotland have risen by almost a quarter since the London bombings, according to police figures. There were 438 incidents reported from 7 July to the end of the month. That was up by 79 on last year, with 64 of those directly linked to the bombings. Senior officers said they were glad the increase was “relatively low” and that the figures showed people had adopted a mature attitude to the atrocities.
Category Archives: Scotland
Surge in racist attacks after Tube bombings
Muslim leaders warned that a wave of hate crimes was sweeping across Scotland as police hunted a hammer-wielding gang of 10 men who yelled abuse about the London bombings as they attacked two young Asians.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that crimes including verbal racist abuse have increased in Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere north of the border since the July 7 terror attacks.
Osama Saeed, of the Muslim Association of Britain in Scotland, said he believed that many more incidents were going unreported. He said:
“Anecdotally, we’ve heard many more accounts of racist attacks against Muslims in the last month. Unfortunately, there is a lack of confidence in the Muslim community that their complaints will be believed or taken seriously so they often don’t feel confident enough to report it.”
Update: See also “Hate crimes up by 20-per-cent in Scotland”, The Herald, 4 August 2005
Racist gang attack two Asian men
Police have said that two Asians were racially attacked by a gang who made comments about the London bombings. The incident came after Lothian and Borders Police called for calm amid fears that racial incidents might increase following events in London. The gang hurled racist abuse and vandalised the car of the men who had parked near Leith Walk in Edinburgh.
Back to you, Mr Blair
It is wrong to put the onus on British Muslims to defeat terror, argues Osama Saeed of MAB.
Young Muslims feel they are treated like bombers
Scottish Muslims say that even getting on a bus is viewed with suspicion as a result of the London terror attacks – sentiments echoed by many young Islamic men and women across the country who say attitudes towards them are hardening.
‘Radical Islamists at Scots universities’ claim refuted
Radical Islamic groups are trying to recruit students at Scotland’s universities despite attempts to ban them.
Extremist organisations such as al Muhajiroun and Hizb ut Tahrir are operating under different names and moving bases within the UK to avoid detection, it was claimed yesterday.
The National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland said it was concerned that extremist organisations were trying to operate on campuses and that, although several had been banned, they had circumvented this by changing their names.
The comments came as the author of a study about to be published, called How Safe are British Universities? , said it was vital that universities in Scotland worked more closely with the security services.
Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University’s centre for intelligence and security studies, said his research documented 14 cases since 1993 of people being charged with terrorism offences having been in contact with extremist groups on campus.
This included the case of Shamsul Bahri Hussein, a Malaysian who read applied mechanics at Dundee University and who has links with Jemaah Islamiah, the organisation accused of being behind a string of bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali blasts.
“The time for a softly, softly approach is over when you are dealing with people who will kill themselves for an ideal. It is a growing problem as more people are attending universities and as some are starved of cash they now recruit more from overseas without being careful enough of who they attract, ” Mr Glees said.
Sarwar in talks after city bombs
Glasgow MP Mohammed Sarwar has told the prime minister that more must be done to engage young Muslims in mainstream British life.
Mr Sarwar was part of a delegation of senior Muslims who met Tony Blair to discuss the London bombings.
The Labour MP said they were united in the fight against terrorists.
A task force will look at the problem of young Muslims feeling disconnected – a move greeted with scepticism by the Muslim Association of Britain.
Mr Sarwar said the Muslim community in Scotland was in a “state of shock” after the bombings in London.
Another right-wing call to ‘rethink our multicultural society’
“Those close to Blair say it is now time to ask whether multiculturalism is to blame – and to accept that pockets of Muslim Britain have been allowed to become isolated and radicalised, thinking they live in an enemy state.
“It is a sign of the paucity of debate in Britain that multiculturalism is used interchangeably with ‘immigration’. It is, instead, a specific form of immigration where the foreigners are not encouraged to integrate. The alternative is the ‘melting pot’ method of integrationism used by the United States, whose newcomers must learn English, salute the flag and sign up to a set of values. They must buy into a basic idea that they have to belong. This would be seen as cultural imperialism in Britain, where a mosaic-style of immigration has been preferred. The natural consequence has been segregated ghettos – and pockets of radicalism, left alone to seethe.”
Fraser Nelson in Scotland on Sunday, 17 July 2005
Putting the onus on Muslims to defeat terror
Osama Saeed writes to the Glasgow Herald after Joan McAlpine writes her column essentially blaming Muslims collectively for the London bombings:
Joan McAlpine (July 14) says Muslims must do more to combat terror.
It would be the easiest thing in the world for me to join many Muslim leaders to say exactly that.
This begs the question – did Muslims really hear people threatening violence in this country but do nothing about it? I can say without reservation that if I had ever seen or met anyone proposing or hinting at bombings I would have no hesitation in reporting them. The reality is we don’t know who these people are, even their families didn’t.
The prime minister has of course welcomed this attitude and indeed led from the front on it. “In the end, this can only be taken on and defeated by the [Muslim] community itself, ” he said on Wednesday.
By doing this he put the onus on Muslims to defeat terror, handily absolving himself of all responsibility. Muslims are not in denial of our duties as above. But much like global poverty, world peace can only be achieved by the prime minister and his powerful allies.
There is a phenomenon at play here, and it is Mr Blair who is in denial about his role in this. He was told by the security services that his and Bush’s war in Iraq would put us in more danger, not less. Had Iraq not happened we would still be facing problems. But Iraq is the current front through which violence is being funnelled.
The Italian Parliament have now braced themselves for an attack on their soil. Why do they think they are next and not, say Norway?
Jack Straw this week apologised for Britain’s role in the Srebrenica massacre. This is welcome, but these apologies need extended to Britain’s more explicit roles in creating the injustices in the Muslim world. From the mess left in Kashmir, to the promising of one people’s land to another in Palestine. Apologies would be a start, but need a recognition of our mistakes, coupled with a commitment not to repeat these errors.
Either you can think these suicide bombers are part of Islam, or an irrational reaction to the injustice taking place in the world.
If it’s the first you have to explain why this hasn’t existed for the 1400 years of the religion.
Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesperson, Muslim Association of Britain, 16 Queen’s Crescent, Glasgow.
Fears of backlash in Scotland as boy and mosque attacked
Police patrols have been stepped up around mosques and Muslim communities in Scotland amid fears of a racist backlash in the wake of the London bombings. The greater police visibility in Edinburgh follows an unprovoked attack on a teenage Asian boy, who was beaten up on a busy street in broad daylight by a white skinhead who shouted racist abuse.
The 16-year-old boy, who has not been named, was with an 11-year-old friend on Leith Walk when the man began shouting at them at about 2pm on Tuesday. The man then punched the older boy repeatedly, knocking him to the ground, before running off when an elderly Asian man intervened.
The teenager was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with a suspected fractured cheekbone, bruising and cuts. Police are appealing for witnesses.
The assault follows attacks on the Shah Jalal Mosque in the city and a Pakistani community centre, both of which were defaced with racist graffiti last Thursday. Doors were daubed with the words “Islam Scum” and “This centre sympathises with terrorists”.
Police, who described the attacks as appalling, said that reports of verbal abuse against Asians had increased in the past week in Edinburgh and Glasgow, home to Scotland’s largest Asian communities.
Muslim leaders warned the Asian community yesterday to be on guard and to report any racial incidents to officers.