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."
technically no, he fell under more of the pattern of crackpot/nutcase, a bit over the edge, vigilante...
vs.
Terrorists, on the other hand, are waging private wars which aren’t accounted for...
Forget London...it's just another of a long string of attacks against those nations that stand against the march for fundamental islamic domination. Shall I name the countries that have been attacked? The list is long but for you to parse it into individual struggles is a diversion. There is a trend here and time is showing it as evil.
You aren't comparing evangelical Christians to Muslim terrorists, are you? How many other evangelical Christians are currently blowing up cars, buses, killing women, children, elderly, Olympians, wheelchair bound, hacking off arms and legs in the Sudan, Rwanda; committing slavery and rape in Africa, committing "honor" killings which entail stoning, beheading and torture of women, dragging corpses of American soldiers thru the dirt in Somalia, hanging mutilated and burnt bodies of American soldiers, beheading and eviscerating men and women.....
I could go on. Really. Now tell me, how many Christians or Jews are doing that today?
Now tell me how many Muslims just in this country (U.S.) are offering TO ALL PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF RELIGION clothing, housing assistance, job assistance soup kitchens, toys to tots, counseling, etc?
Jews do. Christians do. How dare you.
Sorry, I find no innocence in the evil islam cult. Just read a few lines of it, and maybe you'll realize what we are up against.
Proud to be an Infidel.
maybe you'll change your mind when the attacks start happening in your neighborhood.
It's their mantra that she believes in which says convert or kill the infidels.
It's their mantra that says terrorism is ok as long as it fulfills their cause.
And this has nothing to do with guns, that sounds like a lib rant. Try to stay on topic will ya?
"Self inflicted, politically correct, wounds."
Not just there. The US will be an interesting battle. In 25 years, will we be Latino, or will we be islamic?
Parts of Michigan are already being overrun. There is a town in Michigan that sounds the muslim call to prayer 5 times a day over a public address system.
Fellow travelers who enable this murder are not "innocent people". It is far past the time when muslims should have cleaned up their own trash. Now we will do it for them.
that 'point' as you called it, was foolishness and made no sense
enlighten us
And not a stick of deodorant within 100 yards.
(Why don't the go out and find the jihadists and string them up.
Nothing would do more for their safety than seeing them DO SOMETHING against the people who are making them look bad.)
My thoughts exactly. Words of condemnation are great. Action is what people see as proof. All I can see are muslims in the military who refuse to fight the terrorists because they are fellow muslims! You're either with us or against us...
That's what they will do with us. They openly admit it.
It's their terms. Not mine.
("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."
OH THE HUMANITY!!!)
ROTFL! The same exact words came to my mind when I read this. You just posted them earlier! That paragraph just screams for our reaction!
"Seeing as how these people choose to live in democratic and free countries to experience freedom, democracy, right to "worship as they choose" but fail to condemn what many Muslims do and worse yet, plan and fund death to innocents to further the writings of their "Allah" ala Mohammad, no longer entitles any of them to continue to their lives in these countries that have given them the freedoms they despise and fear those of us who now fear, suspect and loathe them for those views. They "fear" a backlash well my comment to any of these crocodile tears is - Boo Hoo."
Well put.
BTW, interesting that the only detail you provide is that the person is an "evangelical" Christian.
You aren't comparing evangelical Christians to Muslim terrorists, are you? How many other evangelical Christians are currently blowing up cars, buses, killing women, children, elderly, Olympians, wheelchair bound, hacking off arms and legs in the Sudan, Rwanda; committing slavery and rape in Africa, committing "honor" killings which entail stoning, beheading and torture of women, dragging corpses of American soldiers thru the dirt in Somalia, hanging mutilated and burnt bodies of American soldiers, beheading and eviscerating men and women.....
I could go on. Really. Now tell me, how many Christians or Jews are doing that today?
Now tell me how many Muslims just in this country (U.S.) are offering TO ALL PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF RELIGION clothing, housing assistance, job assistance soup kitchens, toys to tots, counseling, etc?
Jews do. Christians do. How dare you.
"And I don't buy for a minute that it is just few bad apples. Not anymore.
Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a death cult created by a psychopath to make other psychopaths feel good about themselves. As such it is particularly dangerous because it attracts psychopaths who use it to justify their depravity."
Well said! Now, if we can only get our countrymen to understand this, (dems), and realize we are at war, maybe we can win this war.
I agree 100% with that post.
Please tell me you're kidding. If I lived in hearing distance of that, I'd sue someone because I would be offended. If "Merry Christmas" is offensive, then that "call to prayer" crap is most certainly offensive.
"The IRA always had an eye for their support base which wouldn't have stood large scale random bloodshed."
World Trade Center, London, Madrid, Bali, Beslan... etc.
How can you in any way compare the IRA to muslims?
Are you an islamist?
Herding them all up and blowing them up would be as evil as what happened in London yesterday.
Emotions are controlling reason here..........and that is not a characteristic that speaks well for a conservative forum.
And it is decidedly UNChristian.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.