Yep, and we're just the scary right-wing hate mongers.
Posted on 07/22/2005 7:09:44 PM PDT by Pikamax
'The main thing we feel is fear, 24/7' Threats and a sense of danger
Patrick Barkham Saturday July 23, 2005
Guardian
The first bomb scare at the east London mosque since the suicide bombs in London was yesterday shrugged off by staff. But on Whitechapel Road outside, ordinary Muslims spoke of a pervasive sense of fear and how they felt they were being watched all the time. "As a community, the main thing we feel is fear 24/7," said a 24-year-old Muslim woman dressed in a hijab and jilbab.
At 10.25am a receptionist at the mosque received an anonymous telephone call from a man with an English accent.
"The person on the phone said 'is that the east London mosque?' and the receptionist said yes and the caller said 'There's a bomb in your building, you have half an hour to evacuate'," said Dilowar Khan, director of the mosque. "It was a very calm phone call. It wasn't abusive."
As the alarm bell rang, 200 people, including 160 children from the three schools based in the mosque and Muslim centre next door, quickly left the building.
Mosque leaders praised the police, who they said arrived within five minutes. No device was found and the building was reopened an hour later, in time for Friday prayers.
According to Mr Khan, the threat was taken seriously because they had received 16 telephone calls in the last two weeks, three of which made reference to a bomb threat to coincide with Friday prayers.
Just as many Londoners are trying to avoid the tube because of fears of more suicide bombs, so worried Muslims are warning each other to stay out of central London, sometimes for different reasons.
Windows at the Mile End mosque, near the Whitechapel Road mosque, were smashed shortly after the first bombs two weeks ago.
"After September 11 we felt the same, but after a while it did settle down," said Fatemah al Katib, 23, a student originally from Lebanon.
"We feel different when we walk the streets now. When you sit down on a train, people move away."
"Muslim sisters feel they are in danger and suspected," said the 24-year-old woman, who preferred to remain anonymous.
"Everybody is worried about bombs. Everybody is worried about everything, but most of all we are worried about how every day people are being threatened. We wake up and feel insecure. What is going to happen next?"
News of the shooting of a man of Asian appearance on the tube spread as local people milled around outside the mosque. For some Muslims, it confirmed their fears about the police response to the attack.
"Does that give the police any reason to go and shoot people in public?" said the young woman. "It's just ridiculous. It's not going to help - it's just going to trigger even more trouble."
But many Muslims outside the mosque praised the police and said they accepted that being stopped and searched was the cost of terrorism.
"Because of a harmful minority, the majority have to pay," said Nakib Islam, a student, as police sirens wailed on Whitechapel Road. "If that means giving up five minutes of my time to be searched, so be it."
Mr Islam, who has just finished his A-levels, said he was concerned that women and the elderly would feel the wrath of an anti-Muslim backlash. "What worries me is that all our Muslim sisters, especially the elderly, will be more prone to be attacked. They will see our sisters wearing the hijabs and veils and go up to them and rip them off."
Mohammed Alam, 25, a youth worker with Muslims, said: "We are a bit concerned that Muslim women may be stopped by the police and asked to remove their veils. But the police have been very, very helpful and very good."
Less helpful, he said, had been the prime minister's rhetoric since the bombings.
"Young people condemn the terrorist acts, but at the same time they are a bit annoyed by Tony Blair associating the attack with an ideological clash. This phrase, this 'clash of civilisations' is very irresponsible."
He added: "The government is trying to dissociate the terrorist attacks with any of its actions around the world. Still Tony Blair refuses to listen. Not linking the attacks with Iraq is to hide the truth."
On his way to Friday prayers, Ruhul Tarasfder also praised the police but criticised the government's "evil ideology" rhetoric.
"It's not helpful to us that George Bush used the word 'crusade' and Blair uses 'ideology'. These people should be described as terrorists. They are nothing to do with Islam."
I have the answer to their "fear" problem. Remove the burkha and the Islamofascist attitude and join up with a good old Christian Church and find out what you've been missing in life with that "kill the infidels" mentality. Get Saved Brothers and Sisters!! And don't look back down that dreary road you've been travelling(and blowing up).
I agree. I've gone out of my way to avoid seeing the beheading videos or images. There are some things that are just too awful to look at. I think that, at some point, one's sensitivity maxes out and one becomes inured to the horror.
The fundamentalist factions of Islam obviously don't give a rip about their moderate and liberal Muslim counterparts and the Muslim world in general if they know the result of their actions will be the targeting of the Muslim community at large as well as invasions of predominately Muslim countries in which countless Muslims are killed. Their quixotic goals stemming from an obviously warped interpretation of Islam are more important than the lives of even their counterparts.
Mr. Alam, not Mr. Islam was the man quoted in my reply. My mistake.
Well, they are, but they can always join Western civilization instead.
Their goals do not stem from an obviously warped interpretation of Islam. The terrorists are actually the good Muslims. Read Prophet of Doom.
test/
George Patton needs to slap a few civilians- especially in EU-rope.
They live in fear? Well, good. Now they know how the Jews of Israel have to feel all the time.
Isn't there a website call jibjab?
Gee, ain't that a shame? Perhaps they, as a community, should go back to a moslime country. Say...Iran.
Anyone wearing either should be searched before attempting to board mass transit. So they are afraid? Good to see the shoe on the other foot for a change.
It is hilarious how these freakin Muslims whine and whine. If this was 1945 they would have been in internment camps for 3 years and counting. They are lucky to have their freedom at all.
It is not just your fear. It is present-day reality.
I agree.
The Guardian should be killed immediately.
The liberals islamofascists at the Guardian are doing a very good job at promulgating fascist Islamic propaganda.
But, then again, they're liberals islamofascists.
Although The Guardian finally got around to firing one islamofascist journalist, G-d only knows how many more lurk there.
'Guardian' man revealed as hardline Islamist
The Guardian newspaper is refusing to sack one of its staff reporters despite confirming that he is a member of one of Britain's most extreme Islamist groups.
Dilpazier Aslam, who has been allowed to report on the London bombings from Leeds and was also given space to write a column in last Wednesday's edition of The Guardian, is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical world organisation which seeks to form a global Islamic state regulated by sharia law.
By conferring citizenship on a foreigner, a society makes certain assumptions about his or her loyalty. If the new citizen is willing to accept the privileges and benefits that go with citizenship, he is also expected to transfer his allegiance to his new country. And while this process cannot be instantaneous, surely the second generation should be integrated into society their parents have decided to settle in.
Unfortunately, this has not proved to be the case for many Muslims, especially those from Pakistan. When pressed, they say they are Muslim first, Pakistani second, and British last. After 7/7, this is going to raise questions about their loyalty. Indeed, a backlash is already building up.
The French daily Le Monde sent a correspondent to Beeston in West Yorkshire to gauge public attitudes immediately after the London attack. He found a divided community where Pakistani gangs warred with white and black rivals. He quotes a bitter Fred Dibner on his Pakistani neighbours: “They don’t mind insulting our women, but if we insult theirs, they turn up to smash our windows...” The correspondent adds that Dibner spoke as though his tongue had been freed by the events of 7/7.
Regretfully, it will be more than tongues that will be freed. Despite odd incidents of racism, Britain has been an island of tolerance in an increasingly intolerant world. Even after 9/11, liberal attitudes mostly kept Islamophobia in check. Now, thanks to the actions of a few deluded men, the gloves will be coming off and Muslims, especially of Pakistani origin, are going to be singled out. I’m glad I’m back in Pakistan for the next few months.
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/mazdak.htm
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