Muslims call for calm after UK police raids

Birmingham’s Muslim community tonight called for calm in the media in the wake of police raids that saw nine men arrested in connection with an alleged terror plot.

Speakers at the meeting at Birmingham Central Mosque called for fairness in the way the arrests were reported.

One called for the names of those arrested to be banned from being reported saying all those arrested were innocent until proven guilty.

Businessman Tariq Mahmood, from Alum Rock where some of the raids took place, told a packed meeting room: “There is no evidence, that we know of, but pure speculation, statements from the Home Secretary, houses raided and the media frenzy.

“The media will go away, the polities will move on but we will feel the effects of this farce for years to come.”

He called for gagging orders to be put on the names of those who had been arrested.

Dr Imran Waheed, of the Islamic political party Hizb ut-tahrir, told the meeting:

“The brothers who have been arrested are innocent until such event a just conviction is secured. At the moment we have sensationalist reporting and trial by media.”