Britain's religious leaders call for calm

British muslims

Thousands of Muslims gathered for their most important prayer day of the week yesterday as community leaders appealed for calm.

Mosques across the country heard prayers said for the victims of the terrorist attacks against America and Muslim and Christian religious leaders met in London last night to develop ways of building trust between communities.

There have been a series of attacks on mosques and a few isolated incidents of assaults on Muslims and Asians since the suicide bombings in the US. Extra police are being deployed around mosques and schools to provide protection.

But as Muslims congregated at mosques for Friday prayers, their religious leaders urged peace.

At the small Al Azhar mosque in South Shields, South Tyneside, more than 100 practising Muslims said prayers for the victims. Ibrahim Hussein, son of the mosque chairman, Ahmed Ali Hussein, 90, said his community was united in grief for the victims of the terrorist attacks.

He said it was important people realised Muslims did not condone the attacks. "Everyone was devastated but people seem to look at us as if it is our fault. People say it is your lot, but it is not," he said.

In some places the mood was harsher and at Birmingham Central Mosque, the imam, Abu Yusuf, told a 2,000-strong congregation that they should use every legitimate means to challenge the West's "double standards and hypocrisy" after the atrocities.

He said: "Many people have begun to show their true colours. The British government and the media bear a portion of this responsibility for whipping up anti-Islamic fervour and on the flimsiest suspicions Muslims are being blamed for every attack."

A delegations of Muslim leaders met the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, yesterday and told him their communities were living in fear of attacks. Dr Zaki Badawi, the principal of the Muslim College, said Muslim communities had all shown sympathy for the carnage in the US. "The ironic thing is that we are now feeling terror and are being terrorised," he said.

Mr Blunkett said he had made clear to the police that protecting those threatened by attack was an "absolute priority".

Last night, 10 Muslim and Christian leaders met in London to discuss ways of developing trust and contact between their communities and earlier the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, called for the "building of bridges not walls" with Britain's Muslims.

Meanwhile, a controversial meeting for fundamentalist Muslims supporting the Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun planned for tomorrow was cancelled after death threats were made to local organisers. It was due to be held at the Bangladesh Centre in Cardiff but the city's Bangladeshi Association distanced itself from the group and withdrew the venue saying that the meeting would increase tensions.

Supporters of Al-Muhajiroun held demonstrations outside the Pakistan embassy in London to support the fatwa against the Pakistani Prime Minister, General Pervez Musharraf, pronounced by its leader, Omar Bakri. He told the gathering he did not condone attacks on civilians, but did support a military attack on the Pentagon.

* Community leaders in Peterborough warned of a "disturbing situation" after a 17-year-old white youth died yesterday when he was beaten up by a gang of young Asians . Police said that there was no reason to believe the attack was racially motivated or linked to any animosity generated by the attacks in the US.