Muslims are organising a rally in Glasgow on Saturday to demonstrate a united front against terrorism and to quell fears of a backlash against Scotland’s Islamic community.

The announcement came on the same day that thousands of Indian and Pakistani cricket fans gathered in the city to watch a goodwill match between their countries’ national teams, which had been planned before the failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow last week. The game was washed out by rain.

Mosques and Islamic organisations hope that the event, which will be held on July 7, the second anniversary of the fatal bombings in London, will demonstrate their resolve against terrorism. They are inviting everyone to take part, including faith leaders, churches, trade unionists and others in civic society under the title “Scotland United Against Terror”.

However, Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, who is helping to organise the rally, said he feared “rising hostility” against Scotland’s generally well-integrated Muslim community.

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Police are investigating an incident in Glasgow yesterday morning in which a car was repeatedly reversed into an Asian-owned newsagent’s before being set alight. Another incident was reported earlier in West Lothian, where an estate agency next door to a mosque was set on fire.

Mr Saeed said: “It hurts when these things happen. In some ways it was expected as there was a backlash after 9/11 and 7/7. At the same time I know that the people of Scotland as a whole will react to this as they should. But what you get is a small group of individuals who are out of control and want to take out a misplaced sense of revenge.”

He added: “We have a simple equation facing us. We have the terrorists on one side, and the rest of Scotland against them on the other – whether they be Muslim, Christian, people of other faiths or none. We mustn’t start accusing people of being terrorists when they plainly aren’t.”

At the Friendship Cup in Glasgow yesterday, cricket fans agreed that the terror attacks had given much greater significance to the event, originally organised with the help of the Prince of Wales to mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of Pakistan.

Abrar Khalid, 24, a Pakistan fan who had travelled from his home in Manchester, said: “Right now, this is good for the Glasgow community. It’s something positive happening, rather than all the bad stuff. It’s important that we are here.”

Sabir Ali, 52, who runs a travel agency near the mosque where police carried out a controlled explosion on a car yesterday, expressed his fears about racial tensions. “The local community is angry at Muslims. People I know – Muslims – have been coming into my office and saying they feel like strangers whereas before they felt it was their country. They are now worried that they look like terrorists.”

In London, Muslim leaders echoed the messages of shared responsibility. Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, called on the faithful to help to “extinguish the fire” of radicalism within the Muslim community, as he condemned the failed attacks.

He said that the organisation would also hold a meeting in the capital on Saturday to discuss how they could work better with the police. Daud Abdullah, the council’s deputy secretary general, indicated a shift in tone from the organisation, which has been criticised in the past for not being strong enough in its condemnation of extremism. He said: “We acknowledge there is radicalisation taking place in our community. This is a long-term problem. We are all affected, therefore we all have a shared responsibility to denounce radicalism.

“At the present time our concern is to denounce unequivocally what has happened.”

Abdulla Shehu, chairman of the health and medical committee of the council, spoke of his “surprise” after it emerged that the eight suspects who have been arrested over the thwarted terrorist attacks had links to the NHS.

He said: “It is totally unexpected that any doctor would commit such an atrocity.

“And as a Muslim, to save one life is to save the life of the whole community. So these facts together make it very unexpected. But whatever their motives, and they alone know what they were, it is a decision they have taken as individuals,” he said.

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