Muslim fury over arrests in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, England: Wasim Raja, 25, and Imran Khan, 19, are leaning on the grills of a general store in Alum Rock, Birmingham, watching the police activity on Jackson Road opposite with interest.
"Every time they're coming into Muslim areas, blasting open their doors ... They wouldn't like it if they dragged their mum and dad out of bed in the middle of the night.
They're scum," says Khan, spitting on the pavement. Raja is more conciliatory, although, like many here, he doubts the man arrested in a dawn raid yesterday on suspicion of involvement in a terror plot was guilty of anything.
"I've known him since I was little... He's not that type of person. If they've got a proper lead, then OK. But you've got to be 100 per cent.
Maybe it's wrong information." Police arrested nine mostly Pakistani-origin suspects yesterday, to foil an alleged "Iraq-style" kidnap and beheading plot aimed at bringing a dreaded new form of terror to Britain. In what officials called a "very, very major operation," the alleged plotters were said to be planning to post video of the execution on the Internet, as has happened to Western hostages in Iraq.
The alleged victim had already been identified by the plotters as a Muslim soldier in his 20s, who was alerted by detectives recently and given protection.
"It was going to be a beheading and this was going to be posted on the Internet via a homemade video," a security source said. "I think it would be somebody significant inside the Muslim community."
Eight of the arrests, the result of a six-month investigation, took place in dawn raids in parts of the city, where yellow-vested police sealed off a number of streets for much of the day. In fast-moving events, a ninth suspect was arrested later in the day on a motorway in the Birmingham area. Home Secretary John Reid declined to go into detail about the alleged plotters, but underlined the "real and serious nature" of the terrorist threat Britain faces.
The arrests are causing concern in Alum Rock, not least because of perceived heavy-handedness on the part of the police. Allah Dittah, a local clothing retailer who co-founded the centre, said: "These high-profile raids damage the community, the area and the relationship between the communities itself. People don't want terrorism. This is our home.
Nobody wants this country to be damaged... but we need a balance: no high-profile raids. It creates fear, especially the lack of information."