Stickers urging people to “Boycott Islam” have been posted on a shop window, sparking fear in the city’s Asian community.
The Capital’s only Asian councillor, Shami Khan, said it was the latest attack on the Muslim community. He said some businesses run by Muslims had reported a downturn since the London bombings. And the Edinburgh Racial Equality Council said some Asian shopkeepers had received anonymous calls from people accusing them of being terrorists.
Last week, racists targeted Nicolson Square Methodist Church with leaflets containing offensive messages after it forged links with Edinburgh’s Central Mosque next door. Nina Giles, EREC director, said: “It would concern me if it is part of an organised attack. If it is just one person, it is less concerning. We will be reporting it to the police.”
In the first significant public debate as to whether the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir should be proscribed, some of the organisation’s most severe critics opposed the move.
Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the leading and world renowned Sunni scholar, has welcomed the initiative of the Bishops of the Church of England calling on Britain’s Christian leaders to apologise to the Muslims because of what the war on Iraq has caused. In a meeting with a delegation of British Muslims visiting him at his residence in Doha, Qatar, the Sheikh said the Bishops clearly denounce the war and seem to tell us that they regret it. It is as if they wish to apologise on behalf of the British government. This, the Sheikh added, is a very positive step although we do not hold the Anglican Church responsible for the policy of the British government which insisted in taking part in the war against the wish of the majority of the British people who have since the very beginning been opposed to it.