Police probe suspected arson at British mosque

LONDON, Aug 13: British police said they were treating a fire at a mosque in southern England as suspected arson and were probing whether it was linked to last week's terrorism investigation in a suspected airliner bomb plot.

Fire services were called to the mosque at Sarum Hill in Basingstoke in the early hours yesterday morning.

''In this current climate, we cannot rule out the possibility that this incident is related to the recent security threat,'' said Assistant Chief Constable Steve Watts of Hampshire Police.

''Therefore we are treating it extremely seriously and dealing with it appropriately.'' Muslim leaders have warned that their community was under greater pressure with a danger of increased racial tensions after police said on Thursday they had thwarted a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.

Detectives are questioning 23 people, believed to be British Muslims, in connection with the suspected conspiracy.

''We are liaising closely with the local Muslim community in Basingstoke to reassure them that our protective services are in place and of our determination to prevent reoccurrences,'' said Hampshire police Superintendent Chris Brown.

Meanwhile the government has again robustly defended its foreign policy against claims from Muslim leaders that it was helping to fuel the threat of terrorism attacks.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday, Muslim politicians and leading organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain said the government's policies over Iraq and the current West Asia crisis was helping cause extremism.

A series of government ministers have since hit back at the accusations.

Such a view was ''a dreadful misjudgement that foreign policy of this country should be drafted under the threat of terrorism'', Home Secretary John Reid told the BBC today.

Hib ut-Tahrir, a group the government has said it intends to ban, said the government was trying to silence opposition.

''On the one hand, the government argues that young British Muslims who carry out these atrocities are not motivated by their fury and despair over British foreign policy,'' spokesman Imran Waheed said.

''On the other hand, they say that British Muslims do feel fury and despair about British foreign policy, and they shouldn't. The clear contradiction between these two standpoints goes unrecognised.''

REUTERS

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