Many Suddenly Fearing Attacks on Two Fronts

By Vanora McWalters

July 9, 2005 12 AM PT

Special to The Times

LONDON —

Weekly Friday prayers gave London’s 600,000 Muslims their first public opportunity to grieve after terrorists’ bombs ripped through the city a day earlier. A weeping man and his white-bearded father, sharing their sorrows with other worshipers at one of the city’s biggest mosques, showed that the Muslim community had as much to mourn as any other in London.

Most Muslim Londoners are worried that their community will be blamed for Thursday’s attacks, which bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda. But Shamsul Islam and his father had a more personal grief and fear as they prayed at East London Mosque just a few hundred yards from the Aldgate subway station, near the site of the first blast.

Islam’s 23-year-old daughter, Shahara Akta Islam, left home for the station Thursday morning but never reached work. Though she carried two cellphones with her, she has not contacted her family.

Her father, who has begun contacting hospitals, fears the worst.

Shahara’s story illustrates the double worry confronting Muslims in London: their awareness that they are targets of terrorism because they are Londoners, and the knowledge that some people perceive them as responsible for it because they are Muslim.

With tears rolling down his cheeks, Shamsul Islam talked of his hatred of the terrorists.

“These people are not human beings. They probably think they are Muslims, but they are not doing anything for Islam,” he told BBC Television.

His father, trying to explain how he had hugged Shahara as a little girl, found himself trembling and unable to speak.

Muslims make up 9% of the city’s population, and the attacks occurred near districts where they are concentrated. Muslim associations have said they believe there must be Muslims among the victims, but few names of the dead or missing have been released.

The Muslim Council of Britain has received thousands of e-mails from people threatening revenge. The umbrella organization’s secretary-general, Iqbal Sacranie, said, “One, which is particularly awful, reads, ‘It’s now war on Muslims throughout Britain.’ ”

Two Muslim groups have advised members, especially women in head scarves, not to go out unless they have to. But the larger, more mainstream Muslim Council of Britain urged Muslims to carry on as usual.

“Our faith of Islam calls upon us to be upholders of justice,” Sacranie said. “The day after London was bloodied by terrorists finds us determined to help secure this justice for the innocent victims of yesterday’s carnage. The terrorists may have thought they could divide us and make us panic. It is our hope that we will all prove them conclusively wrong.”

The risk of a backlash was serious enough for Home Secretary Charles Clarke to meet with Sacranie to discuss how to defuse tensions.

After prayers at East London Mosque, Muslim leaders joined Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and Christians in a somber procession down Whitechapel Road to stand vigil at Aldgate Station and remember the victims.

At towering, copper-domed Central London Mosque at Regent’s Park, not far from where a bomb exploded near Edgware Road Station, thousands of men in caps and bare feet gathered for Friday prayers.

Sheik Ashraf Salah, who was among them, said: “Any attack is an attack on us all. We are so sorry that this attack is attached to Muslims.

“We cannot imagine that a true Muslim who understands properly the teachings of Islam can commit this terrible crime against civilians and the innocent. Islam strongly condemns such a sinful act.”

A dozen police stood outside. Yet those drifting out of the mosque after prayers remained anxious.

Egyptian-born Nefisa Ahmed, 46, a small woman in an ankle-length skirt and white head scarf, has lived in London 27 years and raised her three children here. She said that for the first time, she felt uneasy on the streets.

“Some people see scarves and say this is terror, Arab, Muslim,” she said. “Not educated people, but a minority. Today I feel it -- looks, whispers. Today I don’t want to go out.”

Yasemin Brett, a Muslim who is a member of the City Council for Enfield, a suburb with a large immigrant population, condemned the attacks and criticized those leaders who warned Muslims to stay at home to avoid retribution.

She said she did not think there would be widespread retaliation.

“This is shocking for London, of course, but it’s not like 9/11,” she said.

“Maybe because we were expecting it. We’ve had a long lead-in, saying for some time that London was likely to be attacked. So there really was no panic, and people are calmly getting on with it.”

If there are additional bombings, however, she said, the reaction could be more harsh.

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Britain’s Muslims

The 1.6 million Muslims in Britain make up only 3% of the population, but account for 52% of religious non-Christians, according to the April 2001 census from the Office for National Statistics:

Religion in Britain

Christian: 72%

No religion: 15%

Religion not stated: 8%

Non-Christian: 5%

Religious non-Christians

Muslim: 52%

Hindu: 18%

Sikh: 11%

Jewish: 9%

Buddhist: 5%

Other: 5%