Bombing will alienate muslims, warns council

The air strikes in Afghanistan will only widen the gulf between the West and the Muslim world, a leading Muslim group has warned.

The Muslim Council of Britain said it feared Western military action was threatening to ‘‘spiral out of control’’.

‘‘British Muslims want justice to be done for the horrifying events of September 11,’’ said the council’s secretary general Yousuf Bhailok.

‘‘These day and night strikes - which are already leading to innocent civilian deaths amongst the long-suffering Afghan population - will not achieve this purpose.

‘‘In Islam, all innocent human life is precious.

‘‘These attacks will only lead to further polarisation in the world. This will not be a fitting memorial to those who died in the September 11 atrocities.

‘‘We are now hearing talk of ‘widening the war’ to encompass other Muslim countries. We fear that these events could spiral out of control.

‘‘We urge world leaders to react with reason and awareness of the long-term consequences of their actions.’’

Mr Bhailok asked British Muslims to voice their protest at the military strikes with peaceful demonstrations and vigils.

‘‘It is important that we maintain good community relations in this country. We must not allow others to exploit these attacks and to disrupt and poison our relations with the wider community - many of whom also oppose this war,’’ he said.

The MCB’s deputy secretary general, Mahmud Al-Rashid, said more efforts should have been made to negotiate with the Taliban to hand over chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden.

‘‘They are certainly not going to get rid of international terrorism by bombing Afghanistan.

‘‘We are all against terrorism but this is not the way to go about it. We are all against bin Laden, but this is not the way to bring him to justice.

‘‘The Taliban were ready to talk and more diplomatic efforts should have been made to negotiate with them,’’ he said.