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."
You Said:
" Have you read the bible? It does the same thing (Exodus 23:20)"
Ummm Hellooo, Exodus is in the Old Testament, try reading the New Testament, for if you had you would realize the difference but I suspect you do not know the difference as your ignorance on this topic here shows us.
Drama troll, comes here to lecture YOU on humanity, LOL.
"Please read the rest of the statement and then you explain how you would defeat the enemy and you're expertise on identification of the enemy?"
We'll defeat them the same way we've always defeated terrorists.
"If one can't identify through separation then the only alternative is to group and treat them all like enemy until proved they are not."
Now you explain how, if my country today starts treating a million and a half of our people as 'the enemy' as you suggest that would be anything other than the biggest boost Al Qaeda has ever received.
Residency permits should be pulled when people attend a mosque that teaches anything resembling islamic militancy.
yeah well, I suspect the 8 major schools as you put it are financing, aiding and abetting these terrorist islamo fascist scum.
Yeah, what "RICH DIVERSTITY OF BRITISH LIFE" do they bring? Death, Destruction, but I don't see anything else. They may underestimate the Brits, and their tolerance for Islam!
I notice you left barely a few hours pass after the attacks yesterday before you started posting snide little attacks on the integrity of the British public.
Thanks for that.
(In fact, the predecessors of the IRA--- the Fenians and the IRB --- were secret organizations whose members swore an oath, before God, to take their orders from the Brotherhood. This led to problems with the Catholic Church who went so far as to excommunicate members who took such an oath. Later on, IRA-Provo's and their supporters --- including, admittedly, the occasional sympathetic priest --- were told that they should not receive communion; they should effectively "excommunicate themselves.")
By way of contrast, the Islamic terrorists operate with the support of:
Other than that, of course, they're just the same...
Muslims are told to kill the infidels. That's anyone who isn't Muslim. An evil and wicked "religion".
The Catholic idea of "martyr" is almost the diametrical opposite of the Islamic idea. You'll notice that none of the warriors of 2000 years of Christendom --- not Charlemagne, not Charles Martel, not Baldwin, not Raymond, not Tancred, not Don John of Austria, not Philip of Spain not Jan Sobieski of Poland--- not one of them is honored by the Catholic Church as either saint or martyr.
Only two warriors I can think of, offhand, who were canonized were St. Joan of Arc and St. Louis IX of France...and the latter was not lauded for his prowess or success at war, but for his justice and charity.
Hmm. Interesting.
Okay. That's a nice first step.
Now, when's the big press confernce with all of the British Muslim leaders jointly condemnig the bombings?
Then, when is the big Muslim Rally Against Terror scheduled at Wembly Stadium?
" That sounds like a liberal escape route. How would you defeat them? Not some generic subjective answer."
Don't ask a generic subjective question if you don't want a generic subjective answer. What exactly are you looking for? Ultimately we win because AQ don't get what they desire - a polarised conflict between a radical Islamic entity and the rest of the World. Unfortunately, some people seem to think that the only way to win is to facilitate the conflict that AQ want and then defeat them militarily in some huge bloodbath. I disagree.
If you were asking specifically what tactics should be used, then that would obviously depend on specific situations.
Where is the Fatwa by Muslim clerics against OBL?
NOWHERE.
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.