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U.K.: Muslims denounce violence

Hasan Suroor

No to incitement in the name of religion, say moderate leaders

LONDON: Finally, moderate voices rose above the din of extremist rhetoric to have themselves heard as thousands of ordinary Muslims — angry and embarrassed by the controversy over Prophet Muhammed's cartoons — held a massive rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, on Saturday against "incitement'' in the name of religion.

Protesters, waving placards in support of free speech, denounced the extremists who had raised inflammatory slogans during a march here last week against the controversial cartoons.

"We do not fear debate or criticism,'' said one banner echoing the mood at the rally, organised by a broad coalition of Muslim groups and supported by many non-Muslim organisations such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and Stop the War coalition.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and several Christians backed the event which the organisers hailed as an "unprecedented'' show of strength by the "silent majority'' in the Muslim community.

Participants, who came from all over Britain, stressed that the rally was aimed at distancing the mainstream Muslim community from a "minority of extremists'' while at the same time expressing the "hurt'' caused to Muslims by the cartoons.

"The reasons for the rally are two-fold: We want to allow peaceful expression of the hurt caused by the publication of the cartoons [in several European newspapers], but we also want to allow people to publicly distance themselves from the extremists because for most of Britain this is the only impression they have of Muslims in this country,'' said Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council for Britain.

"The main purpose of the rally today is to object to what has been going on in a civilised manner. We have the right to be angry, but we have to do it within the remits of the law, and we have to respect the rights of others," said Azam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought.

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