Islamophobic attacks have surged in the past month in the wake of controversial remarks by ministers about British Muslims, say campaign groups.

The rise in verbal and physical assaults includes a spate of incidents in which Muslim women have been abused for wearing veils and scarves.

They come in the week that the issue was raised by Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons. (more…)

Wearing a full face veil harms women’s participation in society and effectively bars them from becoming an MP, minister Harriet Harman has said.

The constitutional affairs minister was speaking the week after Jack Straw sparked controversy when he said he would prefer Muslim women not to wear veils which cover the face.

Do you wear a veil for religious or other reasons? Have you ever been asked to remove your niqab or burqa? What difference does seeing someone’s face make to communicating with them? How would community relations be changed if full-face veils were removed?

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Muslim women in the UK who wear full veils make “better, positive relations” between communities “more difficult”, Commons leader Jack Straw has said.

Concealing a face was “a visible statement of separation and of difference”, the Blackburn MP wrote in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

He said he now asks women who have meetings with him to remove their veils so they can truly talk “face-to-face”.

“My concerns could be misplaced, but I think there is an issue here,” he said. (more…)

Pope Benedict has said he is sorry for offending Muslims in a speech this week in which he implicitly linked Islam and violence.

The Vatican issued a statement on Saturday saying the pope hoped Muslims would understand the “true sense” of his words.

The statement, issued by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, said the pope was “extremely upset” that parts of his speech “were able to sound offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers”. (more…)

Pope Benedict XVI is being urged to retract comments he made linking Islam with violence after they provoked a wave a condemnation from across the Muslim world.

The pope provoked anger after criticising Islam and its concept of jihad on Tuesday during a six-day visit to his native Germany, citing a 14th-century Christian emperor who said that Prophet Mohammed had brought the world “evil and inhuman” things.

A statement issued by the Vatican on Thursday, saying the pope had never meant to offend Islam, failed to resolve the furore. (more…)

Police in London have arrested 14 people in another round of anti-terrorism raids, saying they suspected the men of being involved in training and recruiting for terrorism.

The arrests late on Friday and early Saturday were not linked to the alleged plot to bomb transatlantic airliners or to the July 2005 bomb attacks on London’s transport network.

The raids followed months of surveillance and investigation, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said.

In a separate operation, police in the northwest of England arrested two men under the UK’s Terrorism Act in Manchester at 6am (0500 GMT) on Saturday. (more…)

An Islamic cultural fair in Reading has been cancelled over “security fears”.

The council contacted organisers to say that the festival could not go ahead on 10 September in Prospect Park due to “heightened security concerns”.

But in a statement, representatives of the Muslim community in the town said the decision was “shocking, disturbing and upsetting” for local people.

They claim the council is putting up a “smoke screen” and it should explain the real reasons for the decision. (more…)

An Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City during a security operation has injured a Reuters news agency cameraman and a local journalist.

At least one rocket hit the car as the cameraman was filming, knocking him unconscious, while the second man received serious leg wounds.

The Reuters car was clearly marked all over as a media vehicle.

The Israeli army said the car had not been identified as press and expressed regret that journalists had been hurt. (more…)

Eleven people have been charged in connection with an alleged plot to blow up several transatlantic airliners.

Eight have been charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

Two are accused of failing to disclose information and a 17-year-old faces a charge of possessing articles useful to a person preparing acts of terrorism.

One woman has been freed without charge and eleven people remain in custody, the Crown Prosecution Service said. (more…)

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has expressed deep concern over Saturday’s Israeli commando raid deep inside Lebanon, calling it a truce violation.

Lebanon has said it may halt its army deployment in the south - a key element of the ceasefire plan.

The Bekaa Valley raid early on Saturday left one Israeli dead. Hezbollah denies reports it lost three militants.

Israel said it was trying to disrupt weapons supplies from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah, and insisted the truce held. (more…)

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has appealed to the international community for help to secure the release of his deputy.

Nasser al-Shaer was detained by the Israeli army early on Saturday.

The Israeli army said it had detained Mr Shaer because he was a member of a “terrorist organisation”. (more…)

Insurgents have opened fire on Shia pilgrims in Baghdad, killing at least 15 while a vehicle ban kept traffic off the city streets.

The health ministry said as many as 200 more people were wounded as gunfire and explosions could be heard throughout the Iraqi capital as pilgrims made their way to the mausoleum of Imam Musa Khadim. (more…)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 17 — Haider Ali communes with God through his CD player.

That is how he listens to the lectures of Shiite imams these days, for he rarely sets foot in a mosque anymore.

Even on Fridays, the Muslim Sabbath, he prefers to pray at home, kneeling on a rug in a room adorned with posters of green-robed Shiite martyrs slain centuries ago. (more…)

Anti-terrorist police say they have foiled a suspected plot to blow up aircraft leaving UK airports. Officers say the aim was to detonate bombs smuggled on board flights to the United States in hand luggage. Police have arrested 25 people, mostly of British origin and some of Pakistani descent, in connection with the plot in raids of houses in the West Midlands and the London area. Thousands of travellers have been delayed by the security measures all UK airports. Currently information is hazy to say the least, but the authorites seem confident that a massive loss of life has been averted.

What do you think? Is this another false alert? Is Al-Qaeda involved? Is the timing of this possible plot with the current Israeli aggression in Muslim territory of any significance? If the people involved are Muslims is this going to make life harder for Muslims here?

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Arrests related to the reported terror threat to UK flights took place in London, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands.

Twenty-one people are being held in London after night-time raids. One raid was in Walthamstow, east London. 

Searches are under way at a number of businesses and homes after an “unprecedented” level of surveillance.

Two of those arrested under the Terrorism Act came from the Birmingham area, West Midlands police have said. (more…)

CAIRO — Human Rights Watch on Thursday, August 3, accused Israel of committing war crimes and deliberately targeting civilians in its weeks-long war on neighboring Lebanon, demanding an international commission to probe such violations and war crimes.

“In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians,” said the New York-based rights group in a report posted in its website.

“In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes,” added the 52-page report, entitled “Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon.” (more…)

With thousands of Israelis taking to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest the bloody assault on Lebanon, Israeli ministers and Members of Knesset have blasted Prime Minster Ehud Olmert for expanding the attacks and refusing to pursue a diplomatic track to defuse the crisis, an Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday, July 23.

“It is important that alongside a military operation, diplomatic efforts are pursued, and the fact that the world is letting us continue military operations should not lead us to believe that there is no need for dialogue and a diplomatic plan,” Minister of Science and Technology and MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) was quoted as saying by Haaretz daily. (more…)

Iraq’s most senior Shia cleric has issued his strongest call yet for an end to Shia-Sunni violence.

Ali al-Sistani urged Iraqis “of different sects and ethnic groups” to wake up to the “danger threatening the future of the country” and stand “side-by-side against it”.

In a rare statement, the grand ayatollah said the time has come for “all those who value the unity and future of this country” to “exert maximum efforts to stop the bloodletting”. (more…)

An overwhelming majority of Israelis support their country’s assault on Lebanon, opinion polls suggest, but despite the clamour for military action, voices of dissent continue to be heard.

Arab-Israelis, many of whom live in northern areas under threat from Hezbollah rocket attacks, are some of the strongest critics of Israeli airstrikes that have left at least 270 Lebanese dead. (more…)

The Israeli army has killed one Hamas fighter and four civilians in central Gaza.

The five Palestinians died when Israeli shells hit their house in Gaza City’s Shijia district on Monday morning, medics and Hamas members said.

The Israeli attack killed the Hamas fighter and four of his relatives, including his mother and two of her grandchildren. (more…)

Lebanon’s prime minister has pleaded for help to stop the “callous retribution” being inflicted by Israel.

Fuad Siniora said: “The country has been torn to shreds. Can the international community stand by while such callous retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted on us?

“You want to support the government of Lebanon? Let me tell you … no government can survive on the ruins of a nation. (more…)

American Muslims have criticised the US government for its reluctance to condemn Israel, as they worry about countless relatives and friends trapped in Lebanon.

US officials have said Israel “has the right to defend itself,” since its incursion into Gaza three weeks ago and air raids on Lebanon; but president Bush’s stance is offending Americans who are Muslims or of Arab descent. (more…)

At least 29 people have been killed in the latest air strikes by Israeli warplanes in Lebanon, raising the toll there to more than 230.

Israeli aircraft struck targets across Lebanon on Tuesday, hitting many areas north and east of Beirut that have so far been quiet. (more…)

The death toll from a tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Java has risen to at least 339, health ministry officials say.

Another 136 people are reported missing around Pangandaran, the worst-hit area.

The tsunami was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake that struck off Pangandaran on Monday afternoon, causing a 2m-high wave. (more…)

Israeli aircraft have bombed Hezbollah positions in Lebanon for a sixth successive day but the attacks have not stopped the Shia fighters from firing over 50 rockets at Israeli towns and cities.

In Lebanon anger was also rising as the Israeli attacks killed at least 40 more civilians, taking the toll to over 200 by Monday evening.

The deadliest attacks came when Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a minibus in the town of Rmeileh, between Beirut and Saida. Twelve civilians were killed. (more…)