ONE OF Scotland’s most prominent Muslims has compared the treatment of Asians in Britain with that of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain and a former Scottish National party candidate, said the growing number of attacks on Muslims echoed the state-sponsored persecution of Jews in pre-war Germany.

Saeed said many middle-class Muslims were considering leaving the country because they feared that they or their families would be attacked because of their religious beliefs. He fears tensions could spill into violent confrontations unless the government tackles souring relations with the Muslim community.

“We didn’t get to the situation in world war two out of nowhere,” said Saeed.

“Hitler was a product of a German society where anti-semitic attitudes had existed unchecked for decades. We have got to listen and learn from what happened there and be vigilant.

“I am not talking about large numbers of people being rounded up, but we could be looking at situations where Muslims are routinely assaulted in the streets. We have got to be conscious that we are stoking an unpleasant atmosphere for the people that come after us.

“In Europe in the 1990s a slaughter of Muslims took place in Bosnia so we are not talking ancient history or pie in the sky. The climate can change quickly.”

Saeed cited the growing number of Muslims subjected to verbal abuse and a recent fire-raising attack at a mosque in Falkirk as evidence of rising Islamophobia. “At the moment we have reached a point where there is a sustained barrage of verbal abuse being aimed at Muslims,” he said. “Ten years ago I would never have dreamt that the kind of statements being directed at Muslims would become common currency in mainstream society.

“As I was growing up the principal taunts I would receive would be ‘paki’, ‘wog’ or other racial abuse. Now this has turned into ‘Bin Laden’ and ‘terrorist’.”

Saeed claimed it was not over-sensationalist to draw parallels with the build-up of anti-Jewish sentiment in pre-war Europe.

He added: “I was alarmed by the amount of people who say that they plan to leave the country, not out of choice or because of a lack of love for Scotland, but because they fear it will get to a stage where they and their families will be driven away.

“I am talking about integrated, university-educated people who are talking in this way. I realise that things could get very, very bad, but I was born and brought up here and leaving the country is just not an option for me.

“We all need to stand shoulder to shoulder against intolerance before it is too late.”

In October, Saeed spoke out after a Bangladesh-born imam was attacked in his Glasgow mosque. Mohammed Shamsuddin, 53, was treated at the city’s Western Infirmary after being punched and kicked by an attacker, who also hit the imam using a chair and a safe-deposit box.

Murdo Fraser, the deputy Scottish Tory leader, said the comments were ill-judged. “I don’t think it’s a rational response to compare the treatment of Muslims in today’s Britain in any way to the horrific treatment that the Jewish people suffered at the hands of the Nazis,” he said.

“An approach of this sort will win no friends.”

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