THE leader of Britain’s Islamic community told Muslims yesterday that they had a duty to help to catch the perpetrators of the London bombings.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain, wrote to the imams of the country’s 1,200 mosques to denounce the bombings and to urge Muslims to assist the authorities. “Let us be absolutely clear: those who planned and carried out these heartless attacks – whoever they are and whatever faith they may claim to profess – are surely the enemies of us all,” Sir Iqbal wrote.

“It is the duty of all of us to help bring the perpetrators of this tragedy to justice speedily. It is quite possible that if they are not caught soon, these criminals may attempt to carry out yet more atrocities in the near future. They must be stopped.”

He told community leaders that police were on the alert for Islamophobic attacks. The Islamic Human Rights Commission said that there had been some 50 incidents of anti-Muslim violence since last Thursday, including attacks on mosques in London, Leeds, Bristol, Merseyside and Telford.

Muslim organisations had received abusive telephone calls and e-mails. People in the streets wearing the hijab or distinctive types of Islamic dress had been verbally abused. An elderly woman in a wheelchair was taunted and had litter thrown at her and a schoolboy was beaten up at a school in Devon.

A spokesman for the Commission said: “We are double victims in this situation. Muslims were victims of the bombing itself and have become victims of the backlash. We are telling people to go out on the streets and get on with their lives but to take precautions because there are a lot of nutcases out there.”

Sir Iqbal appealed to the media not to automatically associate Islam with extremism and told Muslims to report all incidents to the police. He said: “We know that there may be some unscrupulous elements in our society who may look upon Thursday’s carnage as a morbid opportunity to attack and undermine British Muslims, their institutions and mosques.”

Chris Fox, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “We encourage everyone to report this type of obnoxious and dangerous behaviour, from whatever quarter.”

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