From Reuters, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
LONDON, British Muslims feel victimized by the “war on terrorism” and community relations have worsened since the Sept 11 2001 attacks on the United States, lawmakers said in a report on Wednesday.
The report comes a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair called an election in which the parties will fight hard for Muslim votes. “Muslims in Britain are more likely than other groups to feel they are suffering as a result of the response to international terrorism,” said a report by parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee.
Many of Britain’s 1.8 million Muslims say they feel stigmatised by anti-terrorism laws and complain of a rise in the number of police security checks carried out on them as Britons fear an attack by radical Islamists.
The committee concluded that community relations in Britain had deteriorated since 2001, largely a result of measures introduced to combat the threat of global terrorism.
It called for Muslims to be more involved in policy making. “The government needs to bring together its support for community cohesion with its anti-terrorist strategy and needs to ensure the Muslim community are fully involved in developing the next steps in tackling terrorism,” said chairman John Denham.
OK, but in over three years since 9/11 they haven’t shown, in Britain or the US, a tremendous eagerness to get involved in “tackling terrorism.” Is the problem really that the government has been leaving them out of such efforts?
In a move likely to provoke anger among Muslims, the government said on Tuesday it would ditch plans to outlaw incitement to hatred on religious grounds, having run out of parliamentary time before the May 5 election.
The laws would have extended laws that protect people on the basis of colour, race, gender or ethnic origin. Britain is not alone in facing rising tensions with Muslims. …