Category Archives: Scotland

Salmond upholds liberties

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salmond upholds libertiesSalmond upholds liberties

By James Tweedie

Morning Star, 3 July 2007

Scottish civil liberties campaigners welcomed First Minister Alex Salmond’s insistence on Monday that the recent terror attacks must not be a pretext for increasing detention without charge to 90 days.

Speaking in the wake of the failed Glasgow airport car bomb attack, Mr Salmond said: “We have not been persuaded about the necessity for that, as, indeed, other parties haven’t. There is nothing in this incident which would affect that at the present moment, since we have in custody two people who are suspected of being involved in a terrorist incident.”

Scotland Against Criminalising Communities secretary Richard Haley said: “We are glad Alex Salmond has made these comments. The interests of justice will be served best if police stick to the tried and trusted methods contained in the ordinary criminal law and avoid using the divisive powers granted them under terrorism laws. When all is said and done, let’s remember that fewer people were hurt in the Glasgow airport incident than in the the football-related violence in Shettleston on the same day,” he pointed out.

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Fear lingers for Muslims relieved that suspects are not British

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Charlene Sweeney reports for The Times on fears of an anti-Muslim backlash in Scotland.

Fear lingers for Muslims relieved that suspects are not British

By Charlene Sweeney

The Times, 3 July 2007

On the streets of the Pollokshields suburb of Glasgow, home to Scotland’s largest Muslim population, there was a palpable sense of relief yesterday that the suspects being held in police custody for the terror attacks at Glasgow Airport and London were foreign nationals.

But there was also a lingering fear that the community would suffer reprisals simply for having brown skins.

Robina Chaudry, 39, a retail assistant who lives in the area, said: “I saw the bombings on TV and I feel really upset by it. White people looked down on Asians after the London bombings and I worry it will happen again. My kids go on the Underground every day and I fear for their safety.”

One retired man, who did not wish to be named, said that he had not heard of any backlash so far, but cautioned that the attacks could be used as an excuse for racism. “If these terrorists had been born or brought up in Scotland it might be different, but they don’t belong to our Asian community,” he said. “I think people will be tolerant – the Scots are in general – but there are fanatics in every society.”

Zeeshan Muhammed, 17, a pupil at Shawlands Academy who last month attended the country’s first Young Scottish Muslims conference, said that relations between Asians and other communities were in general good. However he admitted that last week’s terror threats could “change things”.

He said that he has already been the subject of taunts because of his faith.

“At school sometimes when I wear a [Muslim] cap they say, ‘Oh look, here’s Osama coming.’ Some are joking but others are serious.”

Across the wider Scottish Muslim community, faith leaders who feared racial tensions were encouraged by the news that the suspects were not British.

Bashir Maan, Scottish representative for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The community was very tense to begin with but since the new developments, that the attackers were foreign nationals, there is some relief – and also some hope – that things will not get as bad.”

But Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, argued that the backlash that followed the 9/11 atrocity in New York and the 7/7 suicide bombings in London was also possible in Scotland.

“Muslims are victims of these atrocities too and what makes it even more galling is that we’re also at the centre of a storm where everyone is pointing the finger of suspicion at us,” he said.

Backlash fears as Asian newsagent is firebombed in Glasgow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glasgow shop fireFears of a backlash against Muslims are rising tonight in the wake of the car bomb plot. It came as a Pakistani-born Scotsman’s newsagents was ram-raided and fire-bombed in Glasgow. Racial incidents rose in the days after the July 7 bombings and there was a similar backlash after the September 11 attack.

Tonight a prominent Muslim leader spoke of his fears of a “rising hostility” towards the Asian community. Osama Saeed, the Muslim Association of Britain’s Scottish spokesman, made the warning as police launched an investigation into the attack on a newsagent’s in the early hours of the morning.

In a chilling echo of the attack at Glasgow Airport on Saturday, a car was reversed at speed into the shop, crashing through metal shutters before the driver apparently dosed it with petrol and set it alight. As he fled – in a second vehicle with waiting driver – explosions ripped through the shop causing a massive fire.

Mr Saeed said: “This incident sounds very much like it is some sort of copycat crime, which is extraordinary because someone would have gone to the trouble of premeditating that attack. It is not an emotional reaction. They’ve waited, they’ve got the car and the materials. It suggests there is a rising feeling of hostility where people feel comfortable in the company of others acting in a grotesque fashion.”

On Monday, fire bombers attacked what they thought was the rear of the Islamic Centre, in Bathgate, West Lothian. But they mistakenly damaged an adjacent estate agency.

Speaking of his fears of a backlash Mr Saeed said: “In some ways it was expected as there was a backlash after September 11 and 7/7. 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.”

Daily Mail, 3 July 2007

Police vow to clamp down on anti-Muslim backlash

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glasgow car bombPolice chiefs and senior politicians moved to reassure Scotland’s Muslim communities yesterday amid fears of a backlash after the terrorist incident at Glasgow airport.

As police waited to question the two men arrested after the failed car bomb attack, the justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, said neither was “born and bred” in Scotland. “Any suggestion to be made that they are homegrown terrorists is not true,” he said. Police said two minor incidents of racist abuse had been reported since the attacks but promised to clamp down on any backlash.

Mohammad Sarwar, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, said constituents had been threatened since the incident. But he said there was no evidence that any of Scotland’s imams or mosques had been fomenting hatred. “The message is moderate and liberal,” he said. “Glasgow airport is used by a vast majority of Muslims and people of all faiths. This attack was an attack on all of us, on our city and our communities.”

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said there had “not been a peep of extremism” in Scotland to date, adding: “You hear about individuals and groups in London and elsewhere in England, but there has been no presence of this here.”

Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, also said the attack was out of character. “Scottish society is very strong, with a strong sense of community,” he said. “In Scotland, the Muslim community is part of the fabric of society, and is hugely important for social life, and this community link will remain strong.”

Guardian, 2 July 2007

See also Daily Record, 2 July 2007

And Osama Saeed’s comments at Rolled Up Trousers, 1 July 2007

Muslim groups ‘appalled by sinister plot’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Community leaders were yesterday quick to condemn the terror attacks in Glasgow and London, while politicians played down fears of a backlash against British Muslims.

MPs, Muslim organisations and police chiefs were universal in their condemnation of events and emphasised the moderation of the vast majority of British Muslims. Mohammad Sarwar, the MP for Glasgow Central, led calls to condemn extremists who “brainwash” British-born Muslims, adding the Glasgow outrage had come as a major shock in a country in which mosques preach a moderate message.

He said: “This is a big surprise … we were not expecting this type of incident in Scotland. This is the first incident that has happened in Glasgow and everybody is shocked and terrified.”

Campaigners from the British Muslim Initiative issued a statement damning the incidents. A spokesman said: “We urge all British Muslims to fully co-operate with the authorities to apprehend and bring to justice the perpetrators.” The organisation’s president Muhammad Sawalha added: “We are utterly appalled by this sinister plot and commend the professionalism of the security services in aborting it.”

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said: “Terrorists do not care who they kill. We are seething with anger about this.”

Independent, 2 July 2007

See also “MCB condemnation with The Three Faiths Forum”, Muslim Council of Britain press release, 2 July 2007

Fascists blame Glasgow car bomb on local Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city and home to an estimated 25,000 Muslims. We can expect the usual knee-jerk reaction from the establishment liberals that the alleged high levels of poverty found in the Muslim community is a factor driving young male Muslims to extremism. This is of course nonsense as high levels of poverty in Glasgow does not turn native Scots youths into suicide bombers. In reality the fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran, the Islamic holy book is the compelling factor behind these kinds of attacks; commanding as it does a holy war against non-believers to spread the word of Islam by any means necessary, including murder and mayhem. Suicide bombers are held in esteem by their immediate families and the wider Muslim community and those who die for Islam are promised ‘unlimited sex with 72 virgins in heaven’ … ‘beautiful like rubies, with complexions like diamonds and pearls’.”

BNP news article, 30 June 2007

Update:  Never a model of consistency, the BNP now argues that the terrorists were not in fact homegrown at all. Utilising a police report that “none of the suspects is British in origin”, the fascists demand: “Doesn’t common sense suggest that we should refuse entry into Britain to all would-be immigrants and ‘asylum-seekers’ either known, or suspected, to be adherents of a certain religion?”

‘Muslims hate dogs’ – shock revelation

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dog“Recently, your paper carried an article about dogs being sent to Turkey by an animal charity in the Borders. I read the item with a sinking heart and it is still worrying me. Surely, everyone must know that Muslims hate dogs.

“Respect and compassion, let alone kindness, towards animals is not part of Islamic culture and the wicked cruelty to animals that is commonplace in Islamic countries has never been a secret from the rest of the world.

“Turkey is an Islamic country. Expats living there do what they can to help the numerous abused animals. Why on earth would anyone think to send dogs from the UK, and ones that have already been unlucky enough to end up in a shelter, to an Islamic country?”

Letter in the Southern Reporter, 27 June 2007

We’re of course familiar with Islamophobia being packaged as a defence of women’s rights or LGBT rights, but the use of animal rights as a cover for anti-Muslim bigotry is now gaining ground. See for example the BNP’s attempt to win support by opposing halal slaughter as “the most barbaric and primitive method of killing animals imaginable”

Hijab ban red-cards Muslim team

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scotland hijab banScotland’s first female Muslim football team has been prevented from playing competitive matches after soccer chiefs imposed a worldwide ban on wearing religious headdress during games.

Ansar Women’s FC, from the east end of Glasgow, were looking forward to their first league games this summer, until it became clear they could not play while wearing their hijab headscarves.

The decision was taken by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game’s ultimate decision-making body, and part of FIFA. Law 4 of the sport’s regulations restricts a player’s kit to a shirt or jersey, shorts, socks and footwear.

Zuby Malik, a Glasgow-based sports worker and coach of the team, said it appeared to end hopes of Ansar Women’s FC being admitted to the Scottish Women’s Football Association league. Malik said:

“It is ridiculous that I will have to tell the girls that they won’t be able to join the league because of this nonsensical ruling. The majority of the girls in our team wear the hijab and it is completely unfair to ask people to choose between their faith and sport. Quite rightly their religion will always come first.”

Malik said London giants Arsenal had already expressed an interest in one of their players. “There is so much talent in the Asian community in Scotland, but this sends out the signal that football is not for them. Asians are already woefully under-represented in Scottish sport and this is another huge blow.”

The 27-year-old coach said there was no justification for banning headscarves and turbans. “There appears to be no logic at all behind this ruling. I don’t see how anyone could be injured through wearing a hijab or a turban or how it affects their game in any way.”

Scotland on Sunday, 24 June 2007

Hidden toll of Scots religious hate crime

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nearly half of Scotland’s police forces have no idea about the number of religious hate incidents reported in their area.

Despite the west of Scotland’s problems with sectarianism and growing concerns over Islamophobia in the wake of the 7 July terror attacks in London, Strathclyde Police does not track crimes linked to faith. Neither the Fife nor Dumfries and Galloway force compiles such statistics. However, police in other areas have been collating them for up to a decade.

Community leaders expressed concerns yesterday, claiming little action could be taken to address religious hatred until the true picture was known. Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said: “There is a climate of fear of Islam and general tension about the international situation. Until you know the scale of the problem, you can’t tackle it.”

Scotsman, 9 May 2007

The Little Bulldogs blog takes the opportunity to repeat false allegations against Osama Saeed which Osama himself rebutted at the time.

Anger at bus firm’s veil ruling – T&G threatens strike action

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lothian busesA bus company in Edinburgh has sparked anger over rules requiring drivers to ask Muslim women wearing the veil to show their faces. Religious groups and unions said the rules introduced by Lothian Buses to catch potential fare cheats were unnecessary. Passengers have been told to lift their veils or produce a passport or driving licence when boarding. The company said the rules brought them into line with airport security.

Sohaib Saeed, events co-ordinator at Edinburgh Central Mosque, said: “This seems quite unnecessary. You have to wonder how much of a problem this really is. People going to all the trouble of wearing a veil just to dodge a bus fare seems an incredible effort. This rule is intrusive and it’s singling people out.”

Osama Saeed, from the Muslim Association of Britain in Scotland, said: “In the current climate, I don’t think there are many women in Edinburgh wearing a veil, let alone getting on buses to evade fares.”

The Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) said bus drivers could go on strike unless the new rules were ditched. “Drivers are unhappy and uneasy about this. There’s a real risk of causing offence and their jobs are hard enough,” regional industrial organiser Sandy Smart said. “It’s not particularly clever, it’s a bad idea and Lothian Buses need to have a rethink.”

BBC News, 4 May 2007