Muslims in Britain brace for backlash

Name-Calling, anxiety, fear and anger rippled through Britain on Sunday after three failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

Name-Calling, anxiety, fear and anger rippled through Britain on Sunday after three failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. Government and religious leaders appealed for calm, but some Muslims braced for a backlash while some non-Muslims looked for someone to blame.

The attacks sparked scattered incidents of racist abuse on the streets of London with white men targeting Muslim taxi drivers and others of South Asian appearance. Glasgow lawmaker Mohammad Sarwar said some Muslims in Scotland had been targeted with abusive graffiti.

“I have spoken to a number of people from the Muslim community and the Asian community who feel very angry,” he told BBC radio. He said Scottish Muslim leaders were meeting in Glasgow to discuss the attacks’ impact on their community. “They’re concerned about a backlash and that’s why the emergency meeting has been called.”

Muslim anger was directed at the terrorists—but also at a society some felt singles Muslims out for scrutiny whenever there is a terrorist attack.

“We are seething with anger about this,” said Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain. “As a community not only are we just as likely to be victims as anyone else, but we are also looked to in order to provide direction and in some respects take responsibility for this… We are sick of being defined as a community by terrorism,” he added.

Government and Islamic groups say they have made great strides since July 7, 2005, when four British Muslims blew themselves up on the London transport system, killing 52 commuters. In the weeks that followed, mosques were attacked by arsonists, while others received hate mails. Some women reported having their head scarves pulled off in the street.