British Muslims protest against east London raid

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) A small group of radical Islamists demonstrated outside Forest Gate police station in east London in protest at last week's big raid on a nearby house by police looking for a chemical bomb.

Chanting ''Tony Blair terrorist'' and ''Hands off the Muslims'', around 200 demonstrators waved placards and shouted insults at scores of watching police officers.

More than 250 officers, some wearing protective suits, took part in the raid on a house in the ethnically mixed Forest Gate area last week.

Two men were arrested and one of them was shot during the operation. Muslim groups said the action was excessive and had inflamed fears in their community.

The family of the two men arrested in the raid distanced themselves from yesterday's protest.

''This will only provide another opportunity for our community to be portrayed in a negative light,'' Humeya Kalam, a relative of the two men arrested, said in a statement issued on behalf of the family.

Instead she urged Muslims to attend another demonstration planned for Sunday June 18.

Larger moderate Muslim organisations have organised another demonstration outside London police headquarters at Scotland Yard tomorrow to protest against what they see as heavy-handed policing of the Muslim community.

London police's Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman apologised on Thursday for disruption caused by the raid, but he said police had no choice but to act on ''very specific intelligence''.

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