The cover of the new pocket guide

By Ahmad Maher, IOL Staff

CAIRO, September 25 (IslamOnline.net) - In view of the mounting racist attacks and stop-and-search activities targeting British Muslims, a new pocket guide sees the light Saturday, September 25, to educate the community about their basic rights and responsibilities in a bid to allay their fears.

'Know Your Rights & Responsibilities' is the title of the 16-page guide, which is published  by the respected Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and to be launched later in the day at a conference in the band new London Muslim Centre.

The guide, which has been published in English but is due to be translated into Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Gujarati and Turkish, sets out the procedures to follow if a person is arrested, their home searched or if they are injured during a police operation.

Half a million copies of the new guide are to be distributed across Britain.

Muslims in Britain are complaining that they are maltreated by police stop-and-search operations under the Terrorism Act for no apparent reason other than being Muslim.

The police action is sweeping and targeting even those who lived in the United Kingdom for decades and have never broken the law in anyway.

There is, in effect, a growing number of complaints from Muslim citizens against being stopped in the street, their cars, having their homes searched, or pulled over for questioning at airports or ferry terminals.

‘Unsettled, Fearful’

MCB Secretary General Iqbal Sacranie said the guide was a must to help the Muslim community cope with hard times.

“These recent months and years have been very difficult for British Muslims. The combination of the anti-terror raids, the large increase in police 'stop & search' activities, and the constant denigration in the media of Islam and its followers, has left many British Muslims feeling unsettled and even fearful,” he said in a statement emailed to IslamOnline.net.

“This Pocket Guide seeks to reassure Muslims about their rights and remind them of the responsibilities we all share to help build a more just and cohesive society.”

The guide also contains advice on how to help increase the educational attainment levels of Muslim children and urges British Muslims to participate in the mainstream political parties with a view to seeking the common good.

It further lists the police Anti-Terror Hotline number and describes the averting of possible terrorist attacks as “an Islamic imperative”.

Senior British parliamentarians admitted last month anti-terrorism laws are being used “disproportionately” against Muslims, as the community members feel increasingly persecuted after a wave of arrests and hostile media campaign.

The Labour peer Lord Judd, a committee member, said that the arrests of a dozen young men on August 3 underlined fears that anti-terrorism legislation of 2001 discriminated against Muslims.