Adeel Malik
A “poisonous narrative” surrounding Muslims in the UK is emboldening far-right terror attacks, Muslim groups and politicians have said in the wake of brutal attacks that took place in Edinburgh on Friday as reported by The Arab News. Allah says about Islamophobia in the Quran 61:8:
They wish to extinguish Allah’s light with their mouths, but Allah will ˹certainly˺ perfect His light, even to the dismay of the disbelievers.
Five men sustained injuries in the apparent anti-Muslim attacks and three required hospital treatment for non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
The charity Muslim Engagement and Development said that several of those injured are Muslims. The Scottish Association of Mosques said two of the injured men were attacked after attending prayers at their local mosque.
Videos on social media showed a half-naked, tattooed, white man who appeared to be carrying a large weapon chasing an Asian man and then attempting to break his way into a restaurant, before later being handcuffed on the ground by police.
Scottish police said on Sunday they had charged a 36-year-old man after the attacks.
MEND urged police to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror.”
It added that the footage of the arrested man circulating online showed him shouting about “protecting the country” from Muslims, accompanied by expletive-filled language.
“Whipping up this type of vigilantism and emboldening far-right terror is (the) whole point of this poisonous narrative,” the group said.
“We expect a hate crime investigation and prosecution, and we stand ready to support the families,” the organization added.
The British Muslim Trust said such attacks would only deepen the fear, anxiety and vulnerability felt by Muslims amid anti-Muslim hate.
“No one should live in fear because of their faith or perceived identity. Our thoughts are with those affected. We urge the police in Scotland to thoroughly investigate this terrifying incident and for the government to ensure Muslim communities are protected,” the trust said.
“Anti-Muslim hostility does not exist in a vacuum. When prejudice and hostility are normalized, they create the conditions in which violence becomes more likely. We cannot afford to ignore these warning signs.
“Anti-Muslim hostility has real-world consequences, and it must be confronted before acts of violence like this become normalized, leaving Muslim communities living in fear,” it added.
Former first minister for Scotland Humza Yousaf said “Islamophobia has been mainstreamed for years” and that the “sickening” attacks had not happened in a vacuum.
“We will get warm words and statements of solidarity from governments. It is not enough. We need concerted action from the office of the prime minister setting out how he and the government he leads will protect Muslim who are feeling more and more unsafe in the UK as each day passes.”
In a post on social media on Saturday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the attacker “appears to be motivated by anti-Muslim hatred.”
The Muslim Council of Britain said the incident was “a direct consequence of political rhetoric that demonizes entire communities.”
The Scottish Association of Mosques also blamed “language that portrays migrants, refugees and Muslims as threats to be feared rather than people to be understood.”
Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party that tops British opinion polls, regularly criticizes the government for failing to stop small boats that brought 41,000 migrants across the English Channel last year.
Rupert Lowe, who broke with Reform to set up the smaller Restore Britain party, focuses heavily on organized child sexual abuse which he says is largely carried out by Muslim men of Pakistani heritage.
Last year, the government told police to record the ethnicity of gangs involved in this type of abuse after a report detailed state failures to tackle the issue and a reluctance to recognize an “over-representation” of Asian men.
