Following a spate of racial violence against Muslims in Scotland in response to the attack on Glasgow airport, various Muslim community groups are organising a ‘Scotland United Against Terror’ rally in Glasgow’s George Square this weekend.

The week following the attack on Glasgow airport has seen a number of violent incidents taking place against Muslims in Scotland, which are being seen as acts of ‘revenge’. Osama Saeed, the Scottish spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain, has spoken of a ‘rising feeling of hostility’ towards the Asian community.

The incidents include:

• An Asian-owned newsagents in Riddrie, Glasgow, being ram-raided and then fire-bombed;
• Graffiti daubed in Lanarkshire targetting a Glasgow MP, saying ‘Kill all P**is starting with Mohammad Sarwar’;
• A petrol bomb thrown through an estate agents window, which is thought to have been intended for the mosque next door, in Bathgate, West Lothian.

Mohammad Tariq, who set up the mosque in Bathgate twenty-two years ago, told Muslim News that ‘people have seen terrorism at Glasgow Airport and now they are looking at us and thinking we are terrorists’.

Osama Saeed, the Scottish spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Britain, commented that: ‘In some ways it was expected as there was a backlash after September 11 and 7/7. It hurts when these things happen. You are Scottish born and bred, yet people look at you when you walk down the street as if you don’t belong.’

The Muslim Association of Britain is one of the organisations coordinating the rally in Glasgow on 7 July, the second anniversary of the London bombings. It aims to display a wide cross-section of opposition to terrorism across society, with faith leaders, churches, trade unionists and other civil society organisations taking part.

The ‘Scotland United Against Terror’ demo will assemble in George Square, Glasgow, at 1.30pm, Saturday July 7.