‘Why do you ask what we think of Paris? It’s 250 miles away’ | World news | The Guardian‘Why do you ask what we think of Paris? It’s 250 miles away’ | World news | The Guardian










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Charlie Hebdo attack


The Observer



Charlie Hebdo attacks: ‘Why ask what we think of Paris? It’s 250 miles away’









Muslims in London respond cautiously to media questions about France killings as local imam urges restraint














Friday prayers at the East London mosque in Whitechapel. Photograph: Felix Clay




Mark Townsend and 
Tracy McVeigh


Saturday 10 January 2015 15.42 EST







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Outside the East London mosque, many sought the same answer. “Why are you here?” said Bilal, 32, from nearby Poplar. “Why are you asking what we think of Paris? It’s 250 miles away in another country. What happens there has nothing to do with us,” his friend added.
As thousands filtered on to Whitechapel’s Fieldgate Street following Friday prayers at the mosque, many said they could see no point in commenting on individuals they had never met and who, they said, cited a religion they could not recognise.
“Are you asking me to speak about something that I don’t understand? Are you asking me to apologise as a Muslim on their behalf? We don’t ask the Irish to apologise for the IRA,” said Maaz, 22, who lives locally and did not want to give his full name.
The debate over the wholesale blaming of Muslims for the events in Paris was given an acrimonious twist on Saturday after News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch tweeted that even peaceful Muslims ought to bear the burden of the deadly Charlie Hebdo death toll “until they destroy growing jihadist cancer”.
His comments provoked opprobrium across social media, with political commentator Mohammed Ansar describing it “deeply irresponsible” and an incitement to the angry.
Back on Whitechapel Road, auditor Mohammed Lambat, 29, from near Manchester, pleaded for Britons to avoid allowing the Paris killings to cloud their view of Muslims. “This could change the views of the majority of non-Muslims but I hope not. Minorities always get hurt but the majority never does.”
His friend Zohaid Quereshi, 25, also an auditor, said he had detected no sympathy from anyone he knew for the Paris gunmen and said that their murderous actions had nothing to do with Islam.
Outside the nearby London Muslim Centre, a group of young men who described themselves as progressive implored the UK media to refrain from using representations of the prophet Muhammad, arguing that the pain it provoked could spark animosity.
Ahmed, 25, who works in the sandwich chain Subway, said: “It’s very painful, far worse than insulting my father, my family. It causes us great hurt, but people do not seem to understand this.”
His friend, Abdul, 26, who works in Argos, added: “It’s very hurtful: they are abusing the freedom of speech by doing this. We are passive, but some people are more emotional, they will react differently.”
The friends, born in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, said that defiling the prophet should be considered a criminal offence because it was effectively incitement to hatred.
Earlier, the group visiting East London mosque, one of Europe’s biggest, accommodating more than 7,000 worshippers for congregational prayers, said the imam’s message had been to urge the community to display restraint and not react to the Charlie Hebdo drawings of the prophet.
“He urged patience. He said the prophet never took revenge and told us not to react,” said one of the group, Shiraz, 32, and who also works in the same east London branch of Subway as Ahmed.
He added that the act of publishing representations of Muhammad could bolster the belief among some Muslims that they were being persecuted.
Fiyaz Mughal, director of the multifaith group Faith Matters, called on Muslims to “stand up and join the debate”. He said the killing would lead to an increase in anti-Muslim bigotry and “build, in the minds of some, the thinking that the gulf between Muslims and non-Muslims cannot be overcome”.
He added: “This is dangerous and uncritical kneejerk reactionism that leads nowhere apart from more damaged lives and a cycle of hate that will simply continue. This cycle of hate and counter-hate needs breaking and it also means that we all have to work to ensure that extremists, bigots and those who seek to divide do not succeed in their endeavours.”
On Thursday it emerged that the BBC was revising its own rules banning the representation of the prophet Muhammad “in any shape or form”, after a Charlie Hebdo cover featured on BBC1’s 10pm news bulletin.



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more on this story














Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video

File footage of one of the Paris gunmen, Cherif Kouachi, arriving at court in 2008 on charges of helping to funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency



Published: 13 Jan 2015




Cherif Kouachi during 2008 terror trial: 'I've been set up' - video












Analysis Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris

The radicalisation of the Kouachi brothers began in a picturesque park in the capital while Amédy Coulibaly took the first steps towards terrorism in prison, but what the three had in common was growing up on the margins of French society



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris












Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras

Officials try to pinpoint when and where cameras found in possession of Kouachi brothers and Amédy Coulibaly were obtained



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: investigation launched into where gunmen got GoPro cameras












Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices

Mobilisation of 10,000 troops to guard potentially vulnerable locations comes as prime minister warns that ‘threat still present’



Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris attacks: 10,000 troops deployed as France hunts for accomplices














Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly




Published: 12 Jan 2015




Paris shootings: Jewish school ‘likely target’ of gunman Coulibaly








Analysis Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Mentor of Charlie Hebdo gunmen has been UK-based








Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis




Published: 11 Jan 2015




Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly declared allegiance to Isis








Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends

Olivier Tonneau




Published: 13 Jan 2015




Charlie Hebdo: a letter to my British friends
















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