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Rise in hate attacks after terror plot

LONDON: Britain’s Muslim community has reported a rise in Islamophobic attacks since the attempted London-Glasgow terror plot in June prompting heightened security at Muslim establishments, especially mosques.

Most of the alleged attacks have been reported from Glasgow —the scene of the foiled attack on Glasgow airport on June 30 when two men, including an Indian engineer, Kafeel Ahmed, drove a burning jeep into the airport terminal. Ahmed later died of burns.

In one incident, a man rammed a car into a Pakistani newsagent’s shop in Glasgow and set it on fire.

Other targets of alleged “hate” attacks in the city have included a mosque and a house belonging to a Muslim. In Manchester, an imam was stabbed on June 30, and on August 30 a “suspicious” fire damaged a mosque in Bradford.

On Tuesday, police said they were investigating a murderous attack on an imam of London’s high-profile central mosque in Regent’s Park.

The imam was reported to be in a critical condition after undergoing surgery to both eyes.

Police confirmed that one man had been charged with causing grievous bodily harm but said the motive had not been established.

Ahmed Al-Dubayan, director-general of the mosque, said there had been an increase in Islamophobic incidents with the mosque receiving “threatening and insulting” calls and e-mails.

The Independent newspaper quoted Scotland’s Strathclyde police as saying the number of racially-motivated attacks had gone up from 201 in June to 258 in July. “It said 31 of those were definitely connected to the airport at tack,” it added.

Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain accused sections of the media of “fomenting” anti-Muslim prejudice and said the situation was worrying.

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