You have it wrong. "Asian" means Pakistani (or Indian) in the UK, not Arab.
I don't think the problem was that they were asian or known muslims.
I believe, after reading the article, that the reason people were nervous around them was because they were over dressed in winter clothes in the middle of summer and were speaking an arabic sounding language and were acting strangely.
weren't we all asked to be aware of people fitting this description??