A police officer stands guard besides two Muslim women in London. (Reuters)

LONDON, August 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Racist attacks against British Muslims after the July 7 terrorist bombings are going on non-stop across the UK with a growing number of families feeling they are increasingly vulnerable to racists who actually know nothing about Islam.

The case of a Muslim woman in Cardiff, capital of Wales, was the latest in a string of such attacks that soared 600 percent in the weeks after the London bombings. Many others often go unreported.

“We were sitting in our living room when we heard this man shouting outside our door,” the woman, who requested anonymity, told the BBC Wednesday, August 10.

She went on: “He was throwing things, picking up stones from our front garden and throwing them at our door and our window. And then he smashed a section of our double-glazed window.

“He was shouting [a series of abusive names]. It was quite scary, because we didn't know what he had. My niece was sleeping in the front room. We don't feel secure at all. When you are in the house you are always fearing whether someone will come in or try and force their way in.

“They can do anything, they can put things in our letter boxes. And when you go out, you are always paranoid, always looking around and people do give you funny looks anyway, especially since the London bombings,” she added.

Muslims in Wales face rising levels of violence and intimidation after the London bombings, the BBC said.

The North Wales Police area had seen the largest rise in racial incidents with 64 reported cases from 7-28 July compared to 20 in the same period in 2004.

In July, animal parts and a racist letter were left at a Cardiff mosque.

Fears of reprisals have been running high among British Muslims in the UK generally after the attacks.

Nearly half a million Muslims contemplated leaving Britain after the terrorist attacks, with one in five saying they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility since the attacks, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published on July 26.

Paul Fawcett, from Victim Support NGO, said it was necessary to look at how best to respond to the needs of victims of hate crimes.

“I think we need to look at in more detail because the danger is giving people a one size fits all policy,” he told the BBC.

“No two people are affected the same by an incident.”

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur has said the rise in attacks against Muslims “can lead to these communities completely retreating and not engaging at a time when we want their engagement and support.”

There are some 1.8 million Muslims in Britain, many with roots in South Asia. The overwhelming majority of them are moderate in their views and have condemned the attacks.

Politicians, scholars and intellectuals across Europe, however, stressed that terror had no religion.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer said in July that Islam was not an enemy of the West, warning of offensive reactions to Muslim minorities across Europe over the London blasts.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has further warned against making Muslims “scapegoats” for the bombings.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had also lashed out at the “gulf of ignorance” which stereotyped Islam and fanned Islamophobia.