It鈥檚 a tricky subject - community relations post 7/7. But that was my assignment two days before the anniversary of the London bombings. The question posed 鈥 Is the 鈥渕arriage鈥 between different Muslim communities and other Londoners a healthy one? Or is it on the verge of divorce? And how do you gauge that? Do you rely on the often unreliable measure called 鈥渟tatistics鈥, given to you by number-crunchers at Scotland Yard or the 91热爆 Office? Or do you resort to a more unscientific analysis of anecdotes to back up whatever side of the fence you finally fall down on? My first thought was that Muslims must have suffered prejudice 鈥 those strange looks on the Tube, maybe verbal abuse or even physical attack. And yes, for a short period the official figures did show that some young Asian men carrying rucksacks or women with Hijabs had suffered a difficult time. But those I talked to kept telling me London was different to the rest of the country. We weren鈥檛 like Burnley or Bradford. We were more integrated, more diverse, more understanding of each other. And the 鈥渢hem and us鈥 tag didn鈥檛 ring true. Ten per cent of those who were killed last summer were Muslim. We were all potential victims. We are all in it together, they said. | ""The police will pick you up and ask you silly questions. And they (young muslims) get angry. Why out of the whole street..why are you picking out me?" | | Harrow mosque trustee |
The general feeling then was that relations between communities here in the capital are still good. Yet there appeared to be a growing unease with the authorities, in particular the police, and how they tackled terrorism. Harrow is home to around 17,000 Muslims 鈥 about a tenth of London鈥檚 Islamic population. Many there, both young and old, felt Muslims were being disproportionately targeted. Stop and search powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 were heavily criticised. A trustee for a local mosque told me: 鈥 They (the police) will pick you up and ask you silly questions. And they (young muslims) get angry. Why out of the whole street....why are you picking out me?鈥 He asked: "Because I'm a muslim? Somehow or another we have to break that barrier...that everyone is equal in this country." And last month鈥檚 Forest Gate anti-terrorism raids, in which 23-year-old Mohammed Abdul Kahar was shot, didn鈥檛 help. Ahmed Versi, editor of the Muslim News based in Harrow, said it was another bruising blow to relations with police. He added: 鈥淭he raid provoked outrage, even before it was admitted that it was based on apparently mistaken intelligence.鈥 鈥淚t is unique in the amount of publicity received, but the tragedy is that it is far from being an isolated incident.鈥
 | | Salima Lanquaye |
Mr Versi also voiced concerns about new anti-terror measures, like doubling the time suspects can be held without charge to 28 days, making the 鈥済lorification of terrorism鈥 into a criminal offence, and targeting non-violent political groups for proscription. At Westminster University, the debate continued. Salima Lanquaye, president of the Student Union, is a young muslim woman. She believed Tony Blair's statement about Muslims rooting out the radicals - in effect to police themselves - was unhelpful. "What does moderate mean? 鈥, she questioned. "Who's stating what is a moderate Muslim. I disagree with the government. Does that make me an extremist Muslim?" "You know, these are statements that should be angering all communities. The fact that one community is being marginalsied from others. That's what is ruining community relations.鈥 Back in Harrow, and I stopped a young man on the street. He repeated one of the main arguments for why a tiny minority of British-born Muslims can become suicide bombers. "Foreign policy," he said. "Most Muslims feel that foreign policy played by the world superpowers is one-sided." "And that is radicalising young Muslims here?" I asked.
"Exactly. It's causing them to do things that they are not ready to do." | 
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