UK Muslims Back Police in Bomb Probe

"Those criminals must be brought to justice," said Abdullah. (IOL Photo)

"Those criminals must be brought to justice," Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) Daud Abdullah told IslamOnline.net over the phone from London.

Abdullah said the best advice to community is to allow the process of law to take its due course.

"Let's avoid presumptions…Let's wait and see; there is little we can say about that," he added.

"Such incidents create tensions and suspicions," he said when asked whether Muslim extremists might be behind the attacks. "Let's not create a hypothetical problem…it can be the work of Muslims, Christians, Jews or Buddhists."

He called the thwarted attacks a "threat to all Britons."

The MCB thanked police for its earnest efforts to arrest the terrorist cell behind the thwarted attacks.

"We must start by expressing our appreciation to those police officers who were tasked with securing the area and removing the threat from the explosive device," it said in a statement posted on the Council's website.

Two days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown took office, explosives experts on Friday defused bombs comprising gas cannisters and nails in two Mercedes cars found in the heart of London's entertainment district.

One car, a pale green Mercedes, had been left outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket.

A second, a blue Mercedes, was left a few hundred yards away in Cockspur Street, a busy thoroughfare close to Trafalgar Square. This vehicle was towed away on Friday afternoon to a car pound on Park Lane by unsuspecting parking officials.

Only the vigilance and courage of ambulance-men and police officers prevented massive loss of life.

ABC, quoting British authorities, reported that mobile phones in both cars failed to detonate the bombs, though each was called twice.

It added that the first car was stolen in June and seen in Scotland and Birmingham in the past two days.

Scotland Yard refused to comment on the ABC reports.

No Deionization

"In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims," said Livingstone.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to rush to demonize Muslims.

"In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims," he told BBC Radio.

"They have played a good and active and growing role in creating a multi-cultural society," he added.

He noted that terrorist acts had been carried out in London over the years by various groups including for example far-right groups.

For years the British capital was wracked by violence by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

"All I am interested in as mayor is that we try to prevent all acts of violence whether it is by a disaffected young member of the (far-right) BNP (British National Party), whether it is by an Islamist or a Wahhabist supporter," he said.

It was crucial to understand "that that doesn't mean that all white men are potentially a threat to society any more than all Muslims are," he added.

Massive Manhunt

A recovery truck removes one of the two booby-trapped vehicles in central London. (Reuters)

A massive manhunt was under way in Britain for a terrorist cell presumed to be behind the thwarted bomb attacks, The Independent reported Saturday.

Counter-terrorism detectives were scouring hundreds of hours of CCTV footage to track the driver of the first car.

The paper said a description of the driver obtained from the CCTV cameras was being circulated.

Sky News reported Saturday that CCTV footage had provided "crystal clear" images of a man running away from the car outside a London nightclub.

Roy Ramm, a former Scotland Yard police commander, told BBC television that the police will benefit from a "gold mine" of evidence left in the unexploded vehicles -- such as skin and hair samples.

Brown said the attacks showed that the UK faces a "serious and continuous threat" from terrorism. He called Saturday for fresh crisis talks.

The government's so-called COBRA emergency cell -- summoned in times of national emergency -- was to meet for fresh talks.

The cell met once on Friday after the first bomb was defused -- but it was called again after confirmation late Friday that a second Mercedes had been found.

With high profile events scheduled in London at the weekend including the Wimbledon tennis championships and a concert in honour of Princess Diana, police maintained a high alert.

"There will be more police patrols. The investigation is moving ahead," anti-terrorism police chief Peter Clarke said.

The foiled attacks, which analysts say carry the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda, came only a week before the second anniversary of the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings in London which killed 52 people and four bombers during the morning rush-hour, fueling speculation it was mounted with similar aims.