Muslims 'tarnished' by anti-terror raids

Britain’s Islamic leaders tonight warned that the Muslim community felt increasingly persecuted following the arrest of 12 men in another round of anti-terror raids.

Police were tonight continuing to question the 12, who are all thought to be of Asian origin, at Paddington Green Police Station in London.

The men, aged between 19 and 32, were seized in a series of raids across the country yesterday on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Armed officers swooped in north-west London, Bushey in Hertfordshire, Luton, Bedfordshire, and Blackburn, Lancashire.

But tonight the Islamic community sounded a warning about the impact such anti-terror raids were having on British Muslims.

Inayet Bunglawala, from the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: “This is the latest in a series of high-profile raids since 9/11 where a large group of mainly young Muslim men are arrested amongst massive nationwide publicity.

“More than 500 people have been arrested and yet less than 100 have been charged.

“There is now a growing bitterness in the Muslim community. It seems the vast majority of these people are arrested amid very high publicity and yet when they are released it does not attract the same publicity.

“I think the police have a lot more to do in terms of working with the Muslim community and gaining their trust.”

Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: “The problem is that these raids are continually creating an image which equates Islam with terrorism and acts of violence.

“The Muslim community is extremely law-abiding. There is a limit to how much they will be the target of Islamophobia.”

Yasin Rehman, of the Luton Council of Mosques, said the town’s Muslim community was feeling persecuted by the second anti-terror raids in four months.

“Muslims have been targeted and their lives have been tarnished,” he said.

“If these raids are successful and the police do find something, that is supportable.

“But in the last raids (in March this year) no-one was charged or convicted and it gives them the feeling they are being targeted.”

Police have until tomorrow night to question the 12 men before they have to apply to magistrates for an extension to the detention period of up to two weeks.

The men were being questioned by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Anti-Terrorist Branch.

A 13th man, also detained yesterday in Willesden, north London, has since been de-arrested and released with no further action.

Scotland Yard, which led yesterday’s operation, has refused to discuss whether the raids were linked to the seizure of computer files from al-Qaida suspects captured in Pakistan.

Officers tonight were continuing to search premises in London, Luton, Blackburn and Bushey.

Earlier today witnesses described the dramatic scenes as the raids took place.

In Blackburn, Tincie Hill, 27, told how she watched officers surround a gold Mercedes.

“The passenger was laid in the gutter with two policemen with guns trained on him,” she said.

“The driver was on his knees at the back of the car with guns pointing at him as well.”

In Luton, witnesses said an Asian man was pulled from his car by armed police officers.

Leigh Mayes, 70, said seven officers carrying semi-automatic machine-guns held the man against his maroon hatchback for nearly three hours while forensic teams carried out searches.

“They just stood there in the blazing sunshine and also throughout the heavy storm,” he said.

The arrests came as a group of parliamentarians warned that emergency counter-terrorism laws passed in the wake of 9/11 should be urgently replaced because they were discriminatory.

Just three months ago the Home Office said that fewer than one-in-five of those arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 had been charged with offences under the legislation.

According to the Home Office today, by the end of June this year 609 people had been arrested under the Terrorism Act since September 11, 2001, but just 99 had been charged with offences and 15 convicted.

In April this year 10 people were arrested in a series of anti-terror raids in an operation led by Greater Manchester Police. They were all subsequently released without charge.

The Government also came under pressure today to spell out the level of the terrorism threat in Britain as a massive security operation continued in US cities.

The US is on heightened alert following the discovery of documents in Pakistan which apparently mention potential targets for attack both in the US and Britain.