Muslims agonise over attacks

2005-07-13 20:59

London - More than 100 alleged revenge attacks - including the killing of a Pakistani immigrant - have been reported since blasts in the heart of London now blamed on four young Muslims from Britain's Pakistani community.

With fears of backlash growing, leaders like Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Britons not to judge all Muslims by the acts of those inspired by a "perverted and poisonous misinterpretation" of Islam.

Muslims spoke out about the need to protect their own children from the radical thinking believed to led the four Britons with Pakistani ties to commit the first suicide bombings in Western Europe.

Police increased protection in Muslim communities.

In Nottingham, a man of Pakistani roots was reportedly beaten to death on Sunday.

In Croydon, an area south of London, a man pushed a petrol-soaked rag through the letter box of a Muslim house.

A mosque in Camden, outside of London, has received several bomb threats.

In Hackney, another town outside of London, the homes of two Muslims were stoned.

Anti-Muslim graffiti has been scrawled on mosques and other buildings.

Moazamm Begg, who spent two years in a US prison camp after being accused of being an al-Qaeda operative, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that many Muslims here, particularly those who share the alleged bombers' Pakistani roots, were thinking of leaving Britain.

"Muslims in Britain are feeling huge repercussions from the attacks," he said.

'Corrupted'

Many in the tight-knit Pakistani community in the northern city of Leeds, where the four bombers are believed to have grown up, spoke out on Wednesday against the attacks, saying the young bombers had been corrupted.

"They were from a good family and they were not troubling neighbours.

We're worried about our children's future now - people might use them," said a 27-year-old woman, speaking of the alleged bombers, who refused to give her name.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone urged people not to judge Muslims on the basis of the bombings, which killed at least 52 people last Thursday.

"You don't judge one of the great world religions, which has been behind so much progress in human history, and is overwhelmingly dominated by people who look for peaceful co-operation, by a handful of fanatics," Livingstone said.

Inayat Bungalwala, spokesperson for Muslim Council of Britain, said those looking for the attackers' motivation should not look to religion.

"We have to look at what would make them so angry and so embittered that they contemplated an act to harm their own country.

"One thing is clear: they were motivated more by hatred than the faith of Islam," Bungalwala said.

- AP