Tikriti said MAB "has registered some 70 verbal assaults, particularly against hijab-clad Muslims," since Thursday.

Additional Reporting By Ahmed Fathy, IOL Staff

CAIRO, July 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – No sooner had the London blasts taken place than racist attacks against mosques in Britain, the US and New Zealand were reported.

Anas Al-Tikriti, the spokesman of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), told IslamOnline.net Sunday, July 10, an arsonist attacked a mosque in central London and tried to set it on fire.

Media reports, however, said at least five mosques have come under racist attacks, including one in northwest England set on fire, since the attacks that killed 50 people and injured 700 others on Thursday, July 7.

A man living in a flat above the Shahjalal Mosque, which is part of an Islamic centre in Birkenhead , was treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The mosque door was burnt and there was some damage inside, Merseyside police said.

London police said Sunday there had been a number of racially and religiously-motivated hate crimes since the terror bombings, including one resulting in a serious injury.

"We have had a number of incidents of hate crime, racially and religiously motivated offences, and we take these types of offences very, very seriously," Commander Brian Paddick of the London Metropolitan Police told a press briefing.

"There has been one serious injury."

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said in June that the Muslim minority in Britain has been living in a "climate of fear" since the 9/11 attacks.

Hotline

British Muslims at the central mosque at Regent's park in London. (Reuters)

Tikriti told IOL "MAB has registered some 70 verbal assaults, particularly against hijab-clad Muslims, since Thursday, July 7, when London was attacked."

The assaults included offensive phrases like "wicked Islam", "go home" and "you are behind the blasts" as well as emotional outbursts in the face of Muslims, he added.

Tikriti, who championed a list of anti-war activists that vied in the European elections in Yorkshire and the Humber constituency in June of last year, said that two old couples insulted a hijab-clad woman, but she was protected by passers-by.

The activist said that MAB has established a hotline to receive complaints from British Muslims about racist attacks.

He further said that they will embark on a series of social activities and media campaigns to show the true face of Islam in addition to sin-ins and peaceful marches.

"MAB staged a sit-in on Friday, July 8, in cooperation with anti-Iraq war and anti-WMDs movements to condemn the blasts and show solidarity with the families of the victims," he said.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission has given British Muslims a set of safety tips to avoid reprisal attacks following the bombings.

Media Onslaughts

Tikriti feared that the media would unleash new anti-Islam campaigns in the wake of the blasts.

"I assume that right-wing and Zionist media, like The Daily Telegraph and The Sun, will mount their anti-Islam campaigns in the days to come, parroting hoary-old claims like Islam was encouraging the killing of infidels and terrifying civilians," he told IOL.

The Muslim activist further said that such media onslaughts are aimed at pitting the Britons against the Muslim minority as it happened in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

He citied a Friday article by Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph entitled "Where is the Gandhi of Islam?"

"But we can’t ignore the fact that there are some leading newspapers that do justice to Muslims and Islam like The Guardian and The Independent," Tikriti said.

Senior British parliamentarians admitted in August of last year that anti-terrorism laws are being used "disproportionately" against the Muslim minority.

Domino Effect

" New Zealand 's Muslim community, like all New Zealand 's communities, is overwhelmingly a law-abiding and peaceful community," said Clark .

The London attacks have already had their domino effect with at least six Islamic centers in New Zealand vandalized and their walls painted with the message "Londoners RIP," police said Sunday.

In what appeared to be a co-coordinated series of attacks across Auckland , vandals smashed windows and doors and left variations of the same message in black paint on walls facing the street, AFP said.

New Zealand Federation of Islamic Associations President Javed Khan said it was the first time an attack on this scale had occurred against the country's 40,000 Muslims, about 25,000 of whom live in Auckland .

He said Muslims were "shocked and saddened" by the incidents in London and appealed to his community to be calm and tolerant of the overnight attacks in Auckland .

Prime Minister Helen Clark was quick to condemn the attacks, saying it was wrong to target the Muslim minority in New Zealand in retaliation for the terrorist attacks in London .

" New Zealand 's Muslim community, like all New Zealand 's communities, is overwhelmingly a law-abiding and peaceful community," she said.

Opposition National Party leader Don Brash said the attacks were "an appalling act of intolerance" and the Green Party described the attackers as no better than the terrorists who brought death to London .

In the US , the FBI and members of its Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating a fire at a Bloomington mosque in Minnesota on Saturday as a hate crime, the American Indy Star newspaper reported Sunday.

The incident took place at the Islamic Center of Bloomington, where a ground-floor window was broken and an incendiary device was used to start a fire, an official of the mosque said.