Posted on 07/08/2005 12:59:23 PM PDT by phoenix_004
Thousands of Muslims crowded London mosques for Friday prayers, condemning the bombings, but also wary they could be made scapegoats and fearful of reprisals against their growing and vibrant community. At the East London Mosque, near the site of one of Thursday's attacks, an imam told the 8,000 worshippers to be "confident in our identity" as part of London's multicultural fabric.
The mosque said it had received hate e-mails and a telephone threat to disrupt Friday prayers. A few police officers stood outside during the prayers, which ended peacefully.
Outside, some Muslims said the attacks had made them more cautious on the streets, but others said they were secure in their identity as Londoners - confident of the city's tolerant traditions.
"It will have some impact on people. But this is London, a cosmopolitan city," said student Ali Ayubi. "Maybe after one or two months it will go back to normal."
At the huge brick mosque in an East End neighborhood that's home to many with roots in Pakistan and Bangladesh, imam Sheikh Abdul Qayyum told worshippers that Muslims were "part of the rich diversity of British life."
"At this difficult time, some people in our community may feel insecure purely because they are Muslims, but these terrible events have nothing to do with us. The Muslims of London are victims as much as their fellow citizens," he said.
All of Britain's major Muslim groups condemned the bombings, which killed dozens and wounded more than 700. But some feared they would be blamed for the bombings, which police said bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida.
"This morning I was driving to work and a woman on the radio said she'd had her headscarf pulled. I was shocked, to be honest," said Ahmed Shafi, 31, a grocery store manager. "In this day and age you don't expect that."
Almost 1 million of London's 8 million people are Muslims. They're inseparable from the fabric of the city's society and its history. From the opulent glitz of Harrods department store - owned by Egyptian-born Mohammed al Fayed - to the kebab shops that dot the city's streets, Muslims have long been part of London's glamour and its grit.
Prime Minister Tony Blair stressed that Islam was not the culprit in the bombings.
"We know that these people act in the name of Islam, but we also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims, here and abroad, are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this act of terrorism every bit as much as we do," he said Thursday.
That message was underscored by Muslims on the streets.
"Many Muslims are British. They have lived here for years. What happens to London happens to them," said Suraiya Zammath, a Bangladeshi woman visiting relatives in London. "This should not be singled out as 'Islamic terrorists.' That destabilizes the community."
Abdul Mukith, a 37-year-old supermarket worker in Brick Lane, the heart of London's Bangladeshi community, agreed.
"What's religion got to do with it?" he asked. "I'm bloody Muslim, and I'm afraid to go into the city" just like anyone else in the aftermath of the attacks.
Still, some feared a backlash. The Muslim Council of Britain said it had been deluged with hate e-mails, which caused its server to crash late Thursday. Though it was up and running Friday, the council said it was still getting a steady stream of vitriolic missives.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said Friday that police were aware of one or two "very minor incidents" involving backlash against Muslims, but he didn't elaborate.
He said that so far, "Britain with its liberal and welcoming approach to people is taking this in its stride. I'm very proud of that."
Representatives of several religious faiths held a silent prayer vigil Friday in a street near Aldgate subway station, where seven people died.
"There is a worry, but I think we can overcome this because we have been working with all the communities together," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, chairman of the East London Mosque.
"As Muslims, as British citizens, as Londoners, we are confident nothing will happen to us. We have to face it with resilience and with confidence."
But Shafi feared he and other Muslims would endure animosity in the coming days and weeks.
"I'm a practicing Muslim, I've got a beard. After 9/11 people called me bin Laden," he said. "But I was born and brought up here, and I don't consider myself anything but British."
They were Catholic, but they did not execute terror to establish the primacy of Catholicism, or Christianity in general. They had a secular concern; elimination of British rule in Ireland.
I agree with you that it's ridiculous to lump all Muslims into the same category, and that the terrorists are a "minority." But I just read an interesting exchange in Mike Evans' book, "The American Prophecies."
He recounts the following conversation in the early '90s with Prince Mohammed Khalid, the governor of Dahran, Saudi Arabia:
Khalid: "... don't insult our religion by exaggerating. Islam is a peaceful religion."
Evans: "Are you teling me that Islamic fundamentalists are peaceful?"
Khalid: "No, they're not. But they represent no more than 10 percent of Islam."
Evans: "Excuse me . . . That really comforts me to know that only a hundred million or so people want to kill me in the name of their religion."
I agree with you that the support base of the terrorists who attacked London will stand for large scale random bloodshed whereas the support base of the IRA wouldn't.
That's not a contentious statement.
To extrapolate from that that "there are 1.2 billion plus people who can reasonably be assumed to be supporters of this large scale random bloodshed" is patently ludicrous.
"Suraiya Zammath, a Bangladeshi woman visiting relatives in London. "This should not be singled out as 'Islamic terrorists.' That destabilizes the community."
Abdul Mukith, a 37-year-old supermarket worker in Brick Lane, the heart of London's Bangladeshi community, agreed.
"What's religion got to do with it?" he asked. "I'm bloody Muslim, and I'm afraid to go into the city" just like anyone else in the aftermath of the attacks. "
Religion has everything to do with it. The terrorists are waging a "jihad" on Western civilization. Since we all know jihad means 'holy war' it means its about killing and dying for allah. Their shouldn't be backlash on the muslim communities, but they shouldnt bitch when special forces enter the muslim 'holy' places, infiltrate and begin targeted assasinations on 'imams' preaching the whahabi style religion.
Never suggested that you did.
You said that Christians didn't do anything to stop Christian terrorism, and I say you're dead wrong about that (I'm using "Christian" in the general sense, and not specific).
Aside from the massive difference between terrorism condoned, encouraged and bred by Imams IN ENGLAND, and the terrorism by the IRA condemned by all Christianity, your premise is still wrong that Christians did nothing to stop the terrorism of the IRA.
(Personal note.......I find many of the posts on this thread advocating mass violence toward innocent people who happen to be Muslim reprehensible, and I wish the Mods would monitor and zap them).
I'm sure they are frightened, because their culture answers violence with senseless killing. Western civilization, for the most part, has progressed beyond that, something their tribal cultures cannot seem to comprehend.
The "Christians" you are referring to were politically motivated. The Muslims are motivated by their religion.
"fringe fanatics"?= what percent of 1.2 billion? How many went through training camps in Afganistan and elsewhere? How many are in this years madrassas in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan? Or last year or the previous years. How many millions worldwide worship Bin Laden? How many Imams call for Jihad? How many Muslim terror groups operate worldwide? How many supporters, financiers and other helpers do they have? Many questions and until the supposed "moderate Muslims" actually do more than lip service, there is no "fringe".
When were Christian terrorists attacking London? True, the IRA attacked London, but they did it in the name of a secular concern (getting the British out of Ireland), not to establish the primacy of their religion. It was/is a war against the British, not the "infidels".
Bast@rd religion.
"They need to pick a side."
That's just it, their religion prohibits them from telling on their other muslim brothers who are the terrorists. They are also afraid of being targets. They have no incentive whatsoever to really help prevent and stop the 'jihad'. It will take a nuclear explosian or mass bio/chem attack where the mulsim community also loses tens of thousands of people before they speak up. What a damn shame.
She's lucky that we are Civilized....the Muslims should try it some time.
"only enemy I have is the Islamist scum who attacked my home city yesterday, so I don't much like the company you're keeping."
This event in London strikes a nerve on many levels. The Brits are us, we are the Brits. Many Americans can trace some part of their history to England.
England has stood tall, with us in the past and present.
The attack on London is a vivid and sickening reminder of 9/11.
I am sick over what happened in London.
And I see you coming to the defense of the muslims. I have read enough to know that islam isn't a religion, it's a sickness. Christianity has had it's sordid past, but has evolved, and is now a peaceful religion. We cannot afford to wait for islam to evolve, if it ever will. islam is a 8th century system of beliefs and thoughts with access to modern technology/weaponry. islam is the biggest threat the world has ever seen.
You confuse me. You compare Christians with islamists.
My point is... anyone siding with islamists is my enemy. The war is on.
Again, my sympathies on the attack. If there is a site for contributions, or help... I would like to know.
I'm sure you know that the ira is not a Christian terrorist organization. It is a marxist terror group. Marxists do not believe in God. Course it's not the truth of the accusation that matters but the seriuosness of the charge
"I seem to often see Christians making statements like 'Muslims should be marching in protest' or 'rooting out the terrorists' but they can never tell me where they marched when Christian terrorists were attacking London or what they did to root them out."
Sure they marched. It was called the British army and secret service marching against the IRA. Both sides were Christian in that fight by the way. Both sides commited attrocities for decades if not centuries.
Really? I must have missed all the announcements about the 'United Christian Super-Sleuth Organization' launching investigations and manhunts whenever an abortion clinic was bombed. And here I just thought that it was the U.S. legal system that did that heavy lifting.
"You said that Christians didn't do anything to stop Christian terrorism, and I say you're dead wrong about that (I'm using "Christian" in the general sense, and not specific)."
I think you're right and my point was perhaps overly severe - of course many Christians and many Christian churches condemned and preached against the terrorists (many in Northern Ireland itself did this in the face of some personal danger to themselves). The majority of Christians did not feel that they had to protest in the streets, however, but they disassociated themselves totally from the terrorists just by means of the way in which they lived their lives and practiced their religion.
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