Seventeen years ago, copies of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses were nailed to wooden stakes and burnt outside Bradford town hall. The flames died down but the public book-burning by 1,500 British Muslims lit a fire through the Islamic world.

Demonstrations were held in other countries, protesters were shot dead in Pakistan and one month later Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to murder Rushdie.

The Bradford Council for Mosques, which co-ordinated the protests in West Yorkshire, looked on with approval. The author, the council said, had “tortured Islam” and deserved to pay the penalty by “hanging”. Since those days, Bradford has twice been brought to its knees, in 1995 and 2001, during race riots that caused damage running to millions of pounds.

Friday prayers at the city’s 38 mosques might have seemed an ideal opportunity for its 80,000 Muslims to make a public display of their determination to defend the latest attack on their prophet’s honour.

It may yet happen, but on yesterday’s evidence the local Muslim community has grown weary, or perhaps wary, of taking too high-profile a stance on controversial Islamic issues.

While it was hard to find a believer who was not offended by the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, it was equally difficult to speak to anyone willing to advocate public street protests. Muslims spoke of feeling hurt, angry and insulted but also preached the need for caution and voiced fears that demonstrations and marches would merely provoke a backlash.

Liaqat Hussain, the secretary of the Bradford Central Mosque, initially seemed eager to fan the flames of a dispute that he cited as evidence of “the beginning of a Muslim holocaust in Europe”. Mr Hussain, 54, a former president of the Bradford Council for Mosques and its general secretary during the Rushdie protests, said that the blame for the widespread publication of the cartoons did not rest solely with the editors of the newspapers involved.

“This is clearly a demonstration by the Christian world of hostility towards the Muslim community,” he said. “This has come from all the nations of Europe and it reflects an ongoing campaign against Muslims by the Western powers. You can’t differentiate between the Western world and Christianity; you can’t separate what’s happened from the people of those countries and their governments. I blame all of the Western population because these cartoons reflect the opinion of the people.”

He said that the publication of the cartoons across Europe was a deliberate act of provocation.

“We have already seen the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia and we’ve witnessed the support by Christians and the West for Israel and its atrocities against the Palestinians,” he said. “Now we’re seeing the early stages of creating a suitable environment for a Muslim holocaust in Europe.” Two hours later, however, the firebrand had turned into a man of moderation. Yes, it was a Muslim’s duty to preserve the honour of the Prophet, but this must only be done in a way that was lawful and democratic.

Mr Hussain also praised newspapers and broadcasters in Britain for the restraint they had shown and their “responsible attitude” in reporting the story. “I would call on all Muslims who may want to express their anger to use peaceful means and not to be carried away by their emotions.”

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