Surge in racist crimes in Scotland following terrorist attack
Regional-UK, Local, 7/23/2007

Racist crime has increased by almost a third in parts of Scotland since last month's alleged terrorist attack on Glasgow airport, with incidents including a suspected fire bombing of a mosque and verbal assaults on Asians.

Strathclyde police said that they had to deal with more than 200 racial incidents, many of them carried out as reprisals on innocent members of the Muslim community, since a blazing Jeep Cherokee was driven into the passenger terminal at the airport on June 30.

More than 10 racially-motivated crimes per day had been recorded compared with a daily average of less than seven racist incidents during April, May and June.

Verbal and physical assaults, along with damage to property, were reported. According to the Independent newspaper Monday, at least 25 incidents were being linked directly to the airport fire bombing.

The new statistics come after the Muslim News reported a backlash of Islamophobic attacks in the immediate aftermath, including a car being driven into a news agency in Glasgow that gutted the shop in an explosion.

Other incidents included a "petrol-bomb like missile" being thrown near a mosque in Scotland's biggest city, while in northwest England, the former Imam of Jaffaria Islamic Center in Blackley, Manchester, Ghulam Mustafa Naz was stabbed and "left for dead" in an attack.

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  Blair seeks new police powers for anti-terrorism   (5/28/2007)
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  Police powers discriminate against Muslims: Lib Dem leader   (3/26/2007)

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