Iranian President Mohammad Khatami urged Qatar’s emir, who chairs the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to hold an extraordinary meeting of the organization’s foreign ministers “at this sensitive juncture,” referring to last week’s terrorist attacks on the US and their negative impact on the Muslim world.
Khatami said in a message sent to emir, Sheikh Hamad Al Thani that “unfortunately, the recent inhumane act has been used as a pretext by those seeking their interests in the confrontation between Islamic civilization and the West by incite anti-Islam and anti-Muslims feelings in the Western countries,” the official Iranian news agency (IRNA) reported.
“The interests of the world of Islam and the international community demands that this danger, which has fortunately come to the attention of most of Western leaders and thinkers, be neutralized through vigilance of Muslim leaders,” he said.
In the latest attacks on Muslims in Europe and the US, AFP said that British police appealed for witnesses Tuesday after a fire described as "suspect" broke out overnight at a mosque in Bolton, northwestern England.
Police said they were treating the fire, which they described as minor and caused no injuries, as suspicious, and appealed for calm.
They said they were investigating to see if the fire was linked to tensions following last week's terrorist attacks against the United States carried out, according to Washington and London, by Islamic fundamentalists.
Bricks have been thrown at mosques in Belfast, Manchester, south London and Southend, southeast England.
London's central mosque was evacuated after a bomb alert and women wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, have reported racial abuse.
Meanwhile a taxi driver of Afghan origin was in hospital Tuesday, paralyzed from the neck down after a dispute about last Tuesday's carnage.
There are around two million Muslims in Britain, out of a total population of some 60 million – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
