British Muslims fear blast backlash

A predictable piece from Al-Jazeera (thanks to Skeetstreet), focusing more on fears of retaliation against Muslims rather than the real victims.

British Muslim groups have condemned Thursday's series of blasts in London and appealed for calm amid fears of an anti-Muslim backlash.

"These evil deeds make victims of us all," the Muslim Council of Britain said in a statement on Thursday.

"The evil people who planned and carried out these series of explosions in London want to demoralise us as a nation and divide us as a people. All of us must unite in helping the police to capture these murderers," it said.

Mark those words. It will be very interesting to see how the Muslim community in Britain responds. If the now-disbanded Al-Muhajiroun was indeed Britain's largest Muslim group, as the New York Times reported in January 2005, than Sacranie's appeal might not be altogether welcome among Muslims in Britain.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he welcomed the council's statement.

"We know that these people (perpetrators of the blasts) act in the name of Islam, but we also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims, here and abroad, are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this act of terrorism every bit as much as we do," he added.

Some London Muslims said they feared they would be targeted as a result of the explosions.

"Everyone is subdued, and people are wondering what has happened. People are asking how will it affect us, are we going to be treated in a nice way after this?" restaurant manager Karim Mohammed said. "We have nothing to do with this."

Great. Then I trust you will be energetically helping authorities identify and incarcerate jihadists among British Muslims.

Meanwhile, the jihadist Hizb-ut-Tahrir group isn't even sure Muslims did the deed:

However, the British branch of the Islamist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir warned Muslims against blaming fellow believers for the bomb attacks.

"Condemnation with scant information will only aid the leaders of the West who want to use fear as a tool as well as allow them to arrest more Muslims unjustly under draconian terror laws," it said in a statement on Thursday.

"Yes, the rules of Islam do not allow the harming of innocent civilians, but at the same time the rules of Islam do not allow us to condemn Muslims with little evidence in order to remove the pressure from ourselves."...

The group told British Muslims to beware of revenge attacks after the blasts.

"It is possible in the days ahead that symbols of the Muslim community such as mosques and schools may be targets for vandalism," it said.

"It is also foreseeable that our Muslim sisters may be at the forefront of verbal abuse or even attack."

Meanwhile, the Vidkun Quisling of 2005, George Galloway, recommended dhimmi capitulation:

In his reaction, controversial UK lawmaker George Galloway said Londoners had "paid the price" for Britain sending soldiers into Iraq and Afghanistan and warned there was more to come. "We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain," Galloway said in a statement on Thursday.

Later, the Respect Party MP told parliament the attacks were despicable but entirely predictable.

"Let there be no equivocation: The primary responsibility for the bloodshed this morning lies with those who carried out the acts.

"But it would be utterly crass to ... separate these acts from the political backdrop against which they took place.

"They did not come out of a clear blue sky, any more than those monstrous mosquitoes that struck the twin towers and other buildings in the United States on 11 September 2001."

This kind of talk will continue and likely increase, making it altogether possible that the London bombings will end up winning more concessions for Muslims in the UK than they would have won otherwise. The idea that they are lashing out in frustration because their legitimate grievance is not being redressed, combined with utter ignorance of the jihad ideology, could make 7/7 the end of resistance to the proposed religious hatred law, and the beginning of more accommodations.