Muslims Crowding London's Mosques Say They Fear Backlash in Aftermath of Bombings

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.

"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."

A Journal of Catholic News and Views

18 Jan 2002

Muslim Persecution of Catholics

The violence perpetuated by the "religion of peace"

As the Catholic Church finds new ways to approach the issue of "world peace", it is faced with an unfortunate reality: currently no religious group in the world is subjected to more violence and persecution than Christians. While the Church has been instrumental in eliminating the "discrimination" towards other religions in formerly Catholic countries, not all of those other religions have followed suit.

In particular, the cult of Islam which is now referred to by confused Catholics as a "religion of peace", has shown little sign of letting up on its fourteen-hundred year campaign to eliminate Christianity. While the Pope welcomed the construction of a mosque in Rome almost completely financed by Saudi royalty, the construction of a Catholic Church in Saudi Arabia is strictly forbidden. Measures Catholic nations used to take to prevent the spread of error are subjected to the harsh condemnation of both secular revisionists and modern Catholics alike. But those same tactics employed in the Arabian counties of the Middle East are ignored out of a relativist sense of "tolerance".

The Church has decided to stop fighting its enemies in the interests of "religious liberty" and "dialogue", but its enemies have made no such concession:

During an official meeting on Islamic-Christian dialogue, an influential Muslim, who was addressing the Christians taking part, stated quite calmly and with assurance: "Thanks to your democratic laws, we will invade you; thanks to our religious laws, we will dominate you."

The Church has chosen the road of negotiation and is "leading" by example, but such tactics appear to deny a fundamental and obvious truth not lost on the over one billion Muslims: the opposite of truth is error and error has no rights. Error is not something to be flattered, negotiated with, tolerated or accepted. It is offense to God and man and must be eliminated through conversion. The Muslims beliefs are false but their grasp of such a simple concept is irrefutable.

The relativism that considers all religions more or less good is a product of man, not God. The followers of Mohammed are right to completely reject the "enlightened" ideas of modern philosophy as every pre-Vatican II Pope did. Unless the Catholic Church is able to reclaim this truth for itself, it will find itself in an impossible position: having to defend itself from an enemy which Catholics were raised to believe is an innocent and peaceful ally.

There are many examples of persecution of Catholics at the hand of Muslims. Three areas of the world will be examined here.

Pakistan

Recently, a highly-publicized recent massacre in a Pakistani Catholic Church has caused many local Catholics to stay home on Sundays rather than risk a repeat of such a violent attack. Christians comprise less than 3% of the almost exclusively Muslim population of Pakistan.

On October 26, Pakistani newspapers printed the al-Qaeda demand for the death of two Christians in retaliation for every Muslim killed in the U.S. military strikes on Afghanistan. Two days later, masked gunmen opened fire on in a Church in Bahawalpur, putting 142 bullets into the walls, windows and altar and killing fifteen:

The slayers had shouted Islamic slogans while mowing down their victims, declaring their attack was "just the beginning" of making Afghanistan and Pakistan the "graveyard of Christians".

The investigation into the affair was big on political statements but lacking on effort:

"The authorities are always very secretive about investigations into attacks against Christians," a Church leader in Lahore told Compass last week. "They don't want to go out of their way to be seen to punish Muslims."

True to their words, the Bahawalpur attacks really were "just the beginning". Nine days, later another shooting occurred:

Benjamin Bashir, 25, a member of St. Dominic´s Catholic Church, was riddled with 19 bullets as he guarded the strategic installations at the Quetta airport on Nov. 7. [Bashir] had been the sole provider for his mother and family since his father went blind, said Catholic Bishop Andrew Francis of Multan.

⁴

and two days after that:

...another Catholic was shot to death in Peshawar, capital of the northwest frontier province near the Afghan border. Married, with two small children, Waheed Paul was last seen by his wife on the morning of Nov. 9, as he went in the gates to his office. According to CRAA, an Afghan-run NGO that employed him as an accountant, he did not report for work that morning.

⁵

Not only did these Muslim terrorists fail to get the Pope's message that "authentic" Islam is a "religion of peace", but they completely missed President Bush's insistence that "this is not a holy war".

Indonesia

Over the past two years, Muslim extremists have been waging a Jihad against Christians in the Moluccas region of Indonesia, bombing churches, burning homes and killing over 9,000 people.

On November 1st, militant forces trampled through the village of Waimulang, torching 350 homes and displacing over 1,000 people.⁶

On November 20th, nine Christians merchants were shot down in their boat while bringing goods to the shore.⁷

On November 26th, Muslim militants fought to overtake a Catholic educational compound and disabled children's center (!) so as to make it their military base:

The compound is apparently seen as a strategic location because of its position overlooking several Christian neighborhoods. ... The aims of the attack are reported to be to use the complex as a Jihad training centre and to use the strategic location of the compound to attack the surrounding Christian neighborhoods. Father Bohm added that if the complex fell into the hands of the militants, they would not only be able to attack the Christian areas but also to cut off the road to Soya village, the only escape route available for the Christians living in surrounding areas.

⁸

Meanwhile, in the Sulawesi region of Indonesia, over 50,000 Christians are been forced to flee their homes to escape the violent Muslim militia.

Refugees are being housed in churches and government buildings, said Father Langgino Sangkide, who is based in the town of Tentena. ... Fighting between Muslim and Christian villagers in Sulawesi, about 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta, has claimed at least 1,000 lives in the last two years. Dozens have been killed in recent weeks. ... The Jakarta Post quoted Bishop Joseph Suwatan of Sulawesi as saying armed militiamen had used bulldozers to destroy homes, churches and schools. The United Nations has warned that increasing tension in the region could trigger a flood of refugees. At least 50,000 people have already been displaced.

⁹

On December 20th, a peace agreement was signed between Muslim and Christian leaders, putting an end to the violence for almost two weeks. On January 1st, four churches were bombed.¹⁰

To make matters even worse, the Sulawesi region has also been host to al-Qaeda terrorist camps:

Indonesia's intelligence chief said on Wednesday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network had set up training camps in Sulawesi island where Muslims Jihad groups have been attempting to eradicate Christians. Lt. Gen. Abdullah Hendropriyono said al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups had trained with the local Islamic militants.

¹¹

Given the past track record of the Indonesian government and army with regards to Christians, the efforts to stop the violence have been understandably slow. In December of 1975, the Indonesian army invaded the small Catholic country of East Timor beginning a bloody twenty-five year occupation that ended in a post-election slaughter of thousands. At the time of their withdrawal in 1999, the Indonesian army had killed an estimated 200,000 Timorese (one-third of the original population) and still detains an estimated 100,000 as political prisoners.¹²

Sudan

In the northern states of Sudan, the Muslim majority has been working to implement the Muslim Sharia law which includes such things as stoning for adultery, the illegality of any Christian worship or "proselytism" and the relegation of women to second-class citizens.

Christians have been protesting against the imposition of these laws and accompanying "Islamization" of the country by the Khartoum government, but have faced increasing violence. Rather than risk having their children seized and forced into slavery, many have fled to the predominately Christian southern states, which are receiving more refugees than they can handle:

"The situation is disastrous: more than 7,000 families may die for lack of water in Aweil county," said Bishop Cesare Mazzolari, a Comboni missionary who is bishop of the Rumbek diocese. He is seeking support for an emergency campaign to drill new wells.

¹³

With the body count now exceeding 2 million, the Sudanese civil war has been the bloodiest Africa has seen in decades.

In a supposed exchange for information on the terrorist attacks, the U.S. has removed obstacles to the lifting of UN sanctions — a move which seems to reward the oppressive Khartoum government. An open letter to the president signed by dozens of religious leaders and human rights activists rightfully criticized the move:

"The evidence points to the horrifying prospect that Khartoum perceives it can wage terror at home without serious American concern or objection. Since September 12, the regime has increased its aerial bombardment of southern Sudan, killing innocent men, women and children, and destroying cattle. On October 4, Sudan´s First Vice president, rallying departing mujahiden troops leaving for the battle front, declared: 'The jihad is our way and we will not abandon it.' On October 9, the regime bombed the UN´s World Food Programme forcing the United Nations to evacuate from areas of northern Bahr al Ghazal. It persists in denying extended permission to USAID to deliver relief to communities in the Nuba Mountains that the United Nations has identified as starving to their death. It continues to tolerate and condone slavery; in late September over 4,000 south Sudanese slaves, the vast majority of whom had been forcibly converted to Islam and subject to physical and sexual abuse, were freed by an international, faith-based group acting in defiance of the regime."

¹⁴

This was certainly a strange reward, but merely a prelude of the Bush Jr. administration's "policy" on China's human rights record. It's also a little ironic considering the ties between Sudan and bin Laden. According to Bishop Cesare Mazzolari of southern Sudan:

"Bin Laden was in Sudan from 1991 to 1996. It was agreed that he should leave, following an attempt on the life of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. They could have handed him over to Bill Clinton, but they didn´t. Bin Laden had workers here producing chemical weapons. His agents are still here, administering large agricultural properties."

¹⁵

The spread of Islam in the African nations is cause for great concern:

Sudan is not the only African country where radical Islam is taking hold. In Nigeria, where several northern states have recently implemented the Muslim legal code despite a constitutional prohibition against the establishment of a state religion, a Sharia court recently sentenced a woman to death by stoning for fornication. And Bishop [Akio] Mutek finds worrisome signs in Kenya and Uganda.
But observers fear that for radical Islamists, Sudan is the key to the rest of Africa. "Sudan is a preview of what will go on in all of Africa if the south falls," said William Saunders, who founded the Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund to assist the struggling Sudanese in the Nuba Mountains.

Observers warn of a pattern that may be replicated in other parts of Africa. Initially, the Islamists present themselves as helpful and peaceful. "They go to a place as traders, bring in things people need, try to live with the people, marry, build shops, preach, ask people to convert, marry local girls, give their children Muslim names and build mosques," Bishop Mutek said.¹⁶

Such a pattern has been more often the rule than the exception whenever the Muslim population becomes the majority. With Western European birthrates plummeting and the Muslim population and immigration surging without limits, it is not unthinkable to see the same "pattern" repeat itself in the heart of Western Civilization.

Conclusion

Father Vincent Serralda, a French priest who lived among Muslims in North Africa for fifty years, prepared a study analyzing the Koran and warning French families of the danger of Islam. He wrote in the preface:

"Islam is always at war, even when it tries smiling. His war is the extinction of Christianity. That is what a careful reading of the Koran revealed to me. It is this combat to death that I am proposing to unveil to the French families who have not yet suffered the Moslem hostility and who cannot suspect the pretension of their Imams for a world imperialism."

¹⁷

Faced with such overwhelming evidence of the violent nature of Islam, both historically and throughout the modern world, how is it possible to maintain that Islam is a "peaceful" religion? While the Church is held responsible for launching the Crusades, Islam is not held accountable for the Turks' acts of terrorism which prompted them. The same double-standard exists today. Militant Muslims murdering millions of Christians in the name of their religion is not seen as any sort of problem with the false religion of Islam, but the misguided actions of a few radicals who misunderstand the "true" and "authentic" Islam.

And what is "authentic" Islam? One need look no further than the beliefs of their human founder himself:

"[Mohammed] approved of assassination, when it furthered his cause; however barbarous or treacherous the means, the end justified it in his eyes; and in more than one case he not only approved, but also instigated the crime."

¹⁸

Our Lady of Victory, Pray for Us.

Peter W. Miller
Seattle, WA
1/18/2002

FOOTNOTES:
¹ From the Interventionis in scriptis on 13 October 1999 of His Eminence Mgr Giuseppe Germano Bernardini, OFM, Archbishop of Smyrna, at the Synod of European Bishops
² ZENIT, "Christians in Pakistan Fear a 'Christmas Bloodbath'" (12/5/2001)
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ FIDES, "New Attacks by Muslim Extremists on Christians in Indonesia" (11/9/2001)
⁷ ZENIT, "9 Christians Shot Dead in Indonesia" (1/12/2001)
⁸ CWNews, "Indonesian Catholics Under Siege by Jihad Forces" (11/26/2001)
⁹ ZENIT, "Indonesian Christians Suffering New Attacks" (12/8/2001)
¹⁰ ZENIT, "4 Churches Bombed in Indonesia" (1/2/2002)
¹¹ CWNews, "Indonesia says al-Qaeda Set Up Camps in Sulawesi" (12/13/2001)
¹² Source: East Timor Action Network
¹³ FIDES, "Thousands Face Death in Sudan for Lack of Water" (1/11/2002)
¹⁴ ZENIT, "Letter to Bush Regarding Rapprochment with Sudan" (11/20/2001)
¹⁵ ZENIT, "Sudan Supports Terrorism, Bishop of Rumbek Says" (11/25/2001)
¹⁶ J. Burger, "Sudan's Christians Fight for Survival" National Catholic Register (12/2/2001)
¹⁷ Fr. J. Emily, "September 11 and the True Face of Islam" (2001)
¹⁸ Catholic Encyclopedia, "Mohammed and Mohammedanism" (1911)

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