Concern over anti-Asian backlash

A MUSLIM leader spoke yesterday of his fears of a “rising hostility” towards the Asian community in Scotland after the car bomb attack on Glasgow Airport.

Osama Saeed, the Muslim Association of Britain’s Scottish spokesman, made the warning as police launched an investigation into an attack on an Asian newsagent’s in Glasgow.

A car was rammed into the shop which was then set alight in the early hours of yesterday.

It follows an incident in West Lothian on Monday where an estate agency next door to a mosque in Bathgate was set on fire.

Police have yet to establish if either attack was racially motivated.

However, Mr Saeed said yesterday: “In some ways it was expected as there was a backlash after September 11 and 7/7. I think we did have a sense of foreboding about it.

“But we have got to stress to people we are in this together and we are all in the same boat. We have all been victims.”

Yesterday the Smithycroft newsagent’s shop in the Riddrie area of Glasgow was left a burned-out shell after it was rammed by a car and then torched.

Police are investigating.

Meanwhile, a leading Muslim organisation condemned the barbarity of the failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow as it called on its faithful to provide “all the necessary support” to prevent terrorism.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said it was the “Islamic duty” not only to utterly condemn such actions, but to provide all the support necessary to prevent such atrocities from taking place.

“The events of the past few days have been very disturbing and challenging ones for all of us,” he told a news conference at the council’s offices in east London.

“It looks sadly as if the terror threat currently facing our country will be with us for some time to come. So let us be absolutely clear about this, that those who seek to deliberately kill or maim innocent people are the enemies of all of us.

“There is no cause whatsoever that could possibly justify such barbarity.

“Those who engage in such murderous actions and those that provide support for them are the enemies of all, Muslims and non-Muslims, and they stand against our shared values in the UK.”