BRITAIN’s leading Islamic body yesterday called on Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to press charges against the extremists behind last week’s inflammatory protests in London over the “blasphemous” cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

This weekend bitter protests continued across the Muslim world with hundreds of demonstrators storming the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, Syria, setting fire to them both.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons, but protesters shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or God is great, broke through. The crowd then moved towards the French embassy where hundreds of Syrian policemen and soldiers tried to head them off by blocking roads.

In London, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said the extremists should be prosecuted. “The Metropolitan police should now consider all the evidence they have gathered from the protests to see if they can prosecute the extremists,” he said.

“It is time the police acted, but in a way so as not to make them martyrs of the Prophet’s cause, which is what they want, but as criminals. Ordinary Muslims are fed up with them.”

The council, a moderate umbrella group, was speaking after the demonstration last Friday in which some protesters chanted the name of Osama Bin Laden and “You must pay, 7/7 is on its way” — a reference to the London suicide bombings.

Five hundred demonstrators brandished placards, including ones proclaiming “Behead the one who insults the Prophet”, “Down, down UK” and “Freedom go to hell”.

Bunglawala said: “Lots of innocent Muslims went to the demonstration not realising that it was organised by extremists. They were hijacked by them.”

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the council’s secretary-general, said: “We cannot have double standards, so therefore any breach of the law should be looked at by the police and investigated.

“The cartoons have offended every Muslim and the anger of Muslims has to be lawfully expressed. However, this outrage was used by some to induce Muslims into taking part in terrorist violence. We condemn their actions.”

The protests have also angered the families of the July 7 victims. George Kolias, whose 19-year-old daughter was injured in the bombings, said: “These people are preaching death and advertising it on the streets and getting away with it. It seems that there is one law for them and one law for everyone else.”

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, also called on the police to act saying: “Cearly some of these placards are incitement to violence and indeed incitement to murder.”

Ministers are keen not to inflame the Muslim community by appearing to condone the cartoons. Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, condemned the Danish and other European newspapers that had reprinted the images.

The Association of Chief Police Officers said the protests did not yet represent a serious threat to public order. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Arrests, if necessary, will be made at the most appropriate time. This should not be taken as a sign of lack of action.”

Additional reporting: Steven Swinford, Claire Newell, Nicola Smith

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