Posted on 08/11/2006 10:05:04 AM PDT by presidio9
The police have increased their presence in areas with Muslim populations in the UK to deter attacks after the latest terror arrests. Officers are investigating a small fire at a mosque in Chester but say it is too early to say whether it was in response to the alleged terror plot.
The small blaze was quickly extinguished and no-one was injured.
The head of the Muslim Council of Britain said Muslims were "fully behind" efforts to prevent attacks.
Dr Mohammed Abdul Bari said the community supported curbs on terrorism, but warned of "a distance" growing between them and the police.
Peter Fahey, the communities and diversities spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), said forces would be "very alive" to any threats.
He added that he was aware that there was a distrust among the Muslim community.
"It is something that we take very very seriously and we are working all the time to break that down," he said.
Dr Bari warned police must be very careful, as the failed raid in east London in June created "a distance" between them and Muslims.
"The people that I have been listening to - the old, young, men and women - they are saying that they are fully behind the police when it comes to national security and the public safety," he said in an interview with BBC Radio Leeds. He called on his community to "work together" with detectives, saying: "This is our society and we could have been victims as well, so there is no second thought on that."
In June, Dr Bari warned that trust between the Muslim community and police could be damaged following the raid on a house in Forest Gate.
A Muslim man was shot in the shoulder and was arrested along with his brother.
Both were later released without charge and the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, judged the shooting to have been accidental.
Home Secretary John Reid has urged people of all communities and religions in the UK to join together to overcome "those who wish to harm us".
However, police "need to do a lot more thinking" before that can happen, argued Fahad Ansari from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, because their intelligence was "flawed".
"For four years we've been seeing more and more innocent people being harassed and demonised," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"We've seen very few terrorists being captured but a lot of innocent people destroyed.
"The more you alienate a community, it's not going to be good for future relations."
'Backlash'
Muhammad Abul Kalam from the Muslim Safety Forum said that there was generally an increase in Islamophobic attacks following events such as Thursday's raids, in which 24 people were arrested.
"We simply don't want to see any kind of backlash unleashed against ordinary Muslims because of what has happened."
He said he believed his organisation had received no contact so far from the Metropolitan Police, despite having an ongoing advisory role for the security services.
"We'd like them to open those channels of communication and talk to them so that we can reassure the community leaders we speak to," he told BBC News. Meanwhile Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said he accepted that young Muslims disagreed with the government's policy on terrorism, and this could lead to a minority turning to being led astray.
Some young people were being "sectioned off" and "brainwashed", he added.
And on occasions, "very new converts to the religion" did not have "a fundamental understanding of their own religion", he said.
But the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said he did not believe that Islam was the real cause of any terrorist plots.
"Most of them are doing it because they are alienated, because they have been given a vision which is so imaginatively wicked that they believe we can build a better world than actually exists," he claimed.
A spokesman for Islamic political organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir said he would "urge caution before jumping to conclusions" about the 24 people arrested over the latest alleged terror plot.
"We hope there is no repeat of the media hysteria and police leaks that followed the Forest Gate raids when reports of 'chemical vests' and 'bomb factories' turned out not to be true," said Imran Waheed.
Doesn't say who'd be instigating the attacks, now, does it?
Could it be the police have concerns about.....Muslims instigating attacks?
More amazing is this fact: In Iraq the Muslims are in fear of other Muslims. It is OK for Sunnis and Shias to hate and fear each other in Iraq, but the British people should remain neutral in regards to suspicions of Muslims in their own country. Doesn't quite make sense, does it?
A_R
What's truly amazing is that you never see these protests and these flags and crowds over in the country/countries they so love and adore.
These people want to be British citizens, or American citizens because the country they fled was so terrible, yet they still want to speak their native tongue and fly the native flag and defend the enemy.
(smacking self in forehead) I just don't get it.
How do we know that she is a woman?
Like Brutus.
If you heard Melanie Philips discuss her book, Londistan, on Rush at noon today, you got a good idea of how far the UK has bent over backwards for these idiots. That big mosque they're building in London is financed by a known terrorist/Muslim org. But that's okay.
If they are so afraid, take all muslims into protective custody and put them in a camp somewhere ... maybe the village of Unst in the Shetland Islands would be a nice spot.
Or even better ... Cormoros Island near Madagascar would be about perfect.
Because she was reported as such on another thread.
Don't build archbishops like they used to, do they?
Since when is it in their job description to make excuses for scummy Saracen heathens, rather than convert them?
Whoa! Can you back that assertion up with bodies?
For crimony's sake, put those policemen IN the mosques to protect the Brits.
It seems they have the threat matrix backwards.
Apart from terrorism, this sort of story never deals with the mass of street crime nominal Muslims are guilty of in Britain, including a significant number of racial assaults. The natives have more than one reason to hate them.
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.