MUSLIM leaders warned politicians and the press last night not to exacerbate resentment within their community through Islamophobic attacks.

The main Muslim groups said that the police had handled yesterday’s arrests more efficiently and less aggressively than those in Forest Gate, East London, but cautioned against a public backlash when the names of those arrested were published.

The Muslim Council of Britain said that yesterday’s events underlined the need for a public inquiry into the London Underground bombings on July 7 last year.

Muhammed Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the council, said that the links had to be found between the suicide bombers on July 7 and other attacks to avoid a general assault on the Muslim community. “We need to find out what was the connection between 7/7 and subsequent attacks. It is imperative to find that link to stop continuing Islamophobic attacks,” he said.

Abdurahman Jafar, the vice-chairman of the council’s legal affairs committee, said that the Muslim community was holding its breath as events unfolded. “Whether the result is successful or not does not matter. Muslims will be stigmatised and kids will come back from school with more vitriol thrown at them.

“Muslims today feel another layer of deep despair as they know what tomorrow’s headlines will say.”

Extremists accused the Government of fabricating the extent of the threat. Anjem Choudary, the right-hand man to the cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, said that the arrest of 24 suspects was a “baseless attack” on British Muslims that was designed to scare the public.

Mr Choudary said that he did not believe that a plan to commit “mass murder” had been foiled. “I think this is another case of whipping the public into a frenzy over terrorism with very flimsy evidence.”

Fahad Ansari, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said that many Muslims would be sceptical about the police statement. High-profile arrests in the past, including Forest Gate, had failed to produce any evidence of terrorist activity, he said.

He accused Tony Blair of being in a “persistent state of denial” on the impact that British foreign policy — from Afghanistan and Iraq to the Middle East — was having on Muslims in Britain. “He has to realise that there was a relationship between 7/7 and British foreign policy,” he said.

Khurshid Ahmed, the chairman of the British Muslim Forum, expressed relief that an attack had been foiled. “The response here is one of shock that we still find young people actively involved in activities which we would condemn as a society and also a sense of relief that a possible attack has been thwarted,” he said.

He and Dr Bari were alerted by the Metropolitan Police and senior government officials about the attacks early yesterday.

Mr Ahmed spent the morning contacting local authorities, police authorities and Muslim community groups to try to ensure that there was no backlash when further information was released about the identity of those arrested. He had already spoken to Muslim leaders in Bradford, London and the Midlands.

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, also cautioned against any attempt to blame the Muslim community at large. “Only a united London can help defeat terrorism, which means that all London’s communities have their part to play,” he said.

“No community in London can or should be targeted or blamed because of the actions of people who are pure criminals.”

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