Is It Forest Gate All Over Again, Ask UK Muslims

LONDON, 12 August 2006 — Following the arrests of 24 Muslim men across London, Birmingham and High Wycombe, community leaders have come out sharply against the police action demanding that the police show solid evidence to back the arrests.

Terror raids were carried out early on Thursday morning in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to blow up airplanes leaving various British airports.

Dr. Mohammad Naseem, chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, told Arab News that he had no confidence in the police raids, “especially with the track record of the police.” He added that the “arrests could be part of a political agenda; by targeting Muslims and using the perception of terrorism, the government is trying to usurp all our civil liberties.”

He stressed that the police had arrested the men in Birmingham with no clear evidence. He said he was amazed because “these same two young men had been previously arrested twice before and released without charge.” According to Dr. Naseem, the community in Birmingham was in a state of shock because the men who had been arrested came from ordinary Pakistani backgrounds and that their families were religious law-abiding people. Dr. Naseem stated, “None of the people in the area, Muslims and non-Muslims, believe the police story about a terror plot, as their previous bungled raid in Forest Gate has proved.”

Sir Iqbal Sacraine, former head of the Muslim Council of Britain, also supports local community demands for more evidence. “If the raid took place to prevent terrorist acts then we applaud the police, but the police must not act on the basis of suspicion only. If we don’t have facts we are in danger of speculation, which in turn can lead to tarnishing the whole community with the same brush,” he said.

Sir Iqbal added, “We then play into the hands of the neocons, Islamaphobes and Zionists who want any chance to denigrate the Muslim community and call them terrorists. Therefore we need the police to work sensibly and to produce hard evidence to support these raids”

LOCAL MUSLIMS SEEM TO BE GETTING FED UP WITH THE CONSTANT RAIDING OF INNOCENT MUSLIMS, AS THEY BELIEVE THE POLICE LACK EVIDENCE. ARE THEY BEING ARRESTED BASED ON THE NEGATIVE STEREOTYPICAL IMAGE THE MEDIA HAS PROTRAYED OF MUSLIMS.