LONDON – A day after the detention of eight Muslims by anti-terrorist police, leaders of England’s 2 million Muslims on Wednesday issued a letter calling on believers to shun extremism and political violence.
The statement, signed by the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, was sent to imams, scholars and leaders of mosques, Islamic organizations and institutions throughout Britain. The instruction was to be read out at the country’s 1,000 mosques on Friday.
The council said the letter was in the works even before Tuesday’s arrests and seizure of half a ton of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate in the largest counterterrorist raid in Britain since the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In the letter, the council instructed Muslim leaders to “provide the correct Islamic guidance … especially to our youth, as to our obligation to maintain the peace and security of our country.” They also were asked to “observe the utmost vigilance against any mischievous or criminal elements from infiltrating the community.”
“We will not tolerate terrorism,” said Secretary General Iqbal Sacranie.
At the same time, the council criticized news reports relating to Tuesday’s arrests, particularly objecting to headlines about an “Islamic bomb plot.”
“This kind of sensationalized reporting has done immense damage to British Muslims, as well as to community relations,” the council said. It urged British Muslims not to “be daunted or intimidated by Islamophobic propaganda.”
Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking in Parliament, said the board’s letter was “particularly welcome” at this time.
“The U.K. and its interests abroad remain a terrorist target,” he said. “The threat affects every family in this country, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.”
The arrests this week, like previous detentions of Britons accused of cooperating in terrorist actions, have caused some soul-searching in the country’s Islamic community. There have been calls by mainstream Muslims for curbs on radical groups that they say are tarnishing the image of Islam in Britain.
The radicals – often from abroad – reportedly recruit and proselytize among young Muslims, especially those who are unemployed or disillusioned about their prospects.
Yassin Rehman, head of the Council of Mosques in Luton, a suburb north of London with a large population of Pakistanis, decried groups such as the London School of Sharia, which he said is actively seeking converts to extremism.
“Islam does not allow extremism or radicalism in any form,” Rehman said Tuesday on BBC. “This country has given us freedom, and we should never abuse those freedoms.”
Meanwhile, police said only that the eight people taken into custody were being questioned at a high-security police station in London, and released no additional information about the alleged plot. The youngest of the eight was 17.
Ansar Khan, father of one of the eight, Ahmed Khan, 18, and uncle to two others, Omar Khyam, 22, and Shujah Khyam, 17, confirmed to BBC that they were arrested in the town of Crawley, near Gatwick Airport south of London.
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