It is wrong to put the onus on British Muslims to defeat terror, argues Osama Saeed of MAB.
Category Archives: UK
Religious hate crimes rise fivefold
The number of faith-hate crimes, predominantly directed at British Muslims, has passed the 200 mark. In the same fortnight last year, 30 faith-hate incidents were reported by the Met. Nationally, the figure for hate incidents directed at Muslims has passed 1,200 as a backlash continues. The figures are almost certainly lower than the actual level, with studies showing hate crimes are under reported by a factor of four.
See also “The main thing we feel is fear, 24/7”, Guardian 23 July 2005
MCB seeks ‘Islamification’ of Britain, Nazis claim
“Only one organisation in Britain speaks out clearly and fearlessly to warn of the danger Islam poses to our traditions, freedoms, democracy and Christian heritage – the British National Party.”
The BNP warns of the threat posed by … the Muslim Council of Britain.
Iraq war promotes radicalising of young: MCB
The Muslim Council of Britain called for the government to recognize the role that the Iraq war is playing in radicalising young Muslims, in the wake of the London bombings. “There is no doubt that Iraq is a important factor in the disenchantment that we have seen among some Muslim youths,” said council spokesman Inayat Bunglawala.
“It’s about time that the government acknowledged, that the government must not completely ignore the Iraqi factor,” he said. “There are also other factors to do with unemployment, underachievement in education, religious discrimination, a feeling that their faith is demonized continuously.”
Change foreign policy – top Muslims
Senior Muslims have warned the Government that it needed to revise British foreign policy if it wants to put an end to the violence.
Dr Azzam Tamimi, from the Muslim Association of Britain, said the country was in real danger and that this would continue so long as British forces remained in Iraq. He described the July 7 bombings and the attempted attacks in London on Thursday as “horrifying” but said it was not enough to simply unite in condemnation of the bombers.
Dr Tamimi, speaking after a Sky News debate in Birmingham, said: “The latest developments very clearly show this is a very big thing. It’s not just a few individuals from Leeds. I think it’s time everybody got serious and engaged in an attempt to prevent it. Part of that would be to understand what’s going on.
”7/7, 21/7, and God knows what will happen afterwards, our lives are in real danger and it would seem, so long as we are in Iraq and so long as we are contributing to injustices around the world, we will continue to be in real danger. Tony Blair has to come out of his state of denial and listen to what the experts have been saying, that our involvement in Iraq is stupid.”
Will police now shoot to kill?
A Muslim group has said it is concerned there is a new police “shoot to kill” policy in the UK following the shooting dead of a man in south London. The Muslim Council of Britain said it was getting calls from Muslims who were “distressed” about the incident at Stockwell Tube station. Roy Ramm, former Met Police specialist operations commander, said the rules for confronting potential suicide bombers had recently changed to “shoot to kill”.
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.
Will police now shoot to kill?
A Muslim group has said it is concerned there is a new police “shoot to kill” policy in the UK following the shooting dead of a man in south London. The Muslim Council of Britain said it was getting calls from Muslims who were “distressed” about the incident at Stockwell Tube station. Roy Ramm, former Met Police specialist operations commander, said the rules for confronting potential suicide bombers had recently changed to “shoot to kill”.
‘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.
‘No more hand-wringing – it’s time for neck-wringing’
Richard Littlejohn ponders the implications of yesterday’s attempted bombings in London.