The unidentified imam was stabbed at the Regent's Park mosque, pictured here, on Friday

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I hope that the despicable almost unanimous comments shared here by non-Muslims is not a true indication of the public at large because if it is then this means we have indeed slipped back into fascism.

However "7/7" and "911" were examples of mass murder, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone (not to speak of the British legacy of murder and pillage that is Colonialism), have killed far more Muslim civilians.

To use these two atrocities as a blanket excuse for supporting bigotry and Islamophobia is hyprocritical and unacceptable.

- Observer, UK

I think that comment that was made about people preaching outside the mosque is wrong. If you went into the mosque and listened to any of the lectures or teachings you would never hear anything being said to do with Anti-British views as many of the people there are British, they are either born British Muslims or reverts.
The people who stand outside the mosque do not actaully preach for the mosque they are doing on there own behalf, the only reason they stand there is to make it seem they are something to do with the mosque so people will listen.
When those people are seen by mosque officals they are moved on.

There is a difference between being anti-British and not liking how SOME western people live. We are not againist British as most of us were born here.
I was born here but there is alot of things I don't agree with, maybe because my morals are different.
For example SOME western parents would rather there teenagers slept around with numerous partners as long as they were "careful", but as a Muslim I would rather my teenage daughter came and asked to get married than do that.
Everybody's morals are different but there are some things we shouldn't have to put up with.
Maybe if these naive people took their head out the sand they would look past what was being said by the media. Prime example is that documentary on Channel 4 about Muslims. Even the police said that sentences were split to make new ones to make it out to be something it wasn't.

- Leila Rahim, London, UK

I think people will more and more react against all the political correctness in the UK nowadays. It will become more dangerous I am afraid. People are taking the law into their own hands.

- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London

Brandon & Daisy, Figures released by the Home Office on March 5th 2007 show that 1,166 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 between September 11th 2001 and December 31st 2006. Of the total people arrested under the Act or during related police investigations, only 221 were actually charged with terrorism offences, and only 0.34%, which is 40 people, actually convicted!

I am sure you must have heard from the media of all the arrests but did you hear of the releases without charge or the acquittals?

The media is fermenting much of this Islamophobic prejudice and hatred against British Muslims.

It is amazing that the non-Muslim community is happy to promote stereotypes and not even have the decency, as I was taught all British people had, to look further into Islam to gauge for themselves what it is all about.

Finally, the uncle of a friend of mine was killed by the IRA... of course I blame all Christians for this and especially Catholic Churches for not condemning the IRA and allowing the IRA to propagate their anti-British views outside their premises!

- Unis, London, England

It is very interesting to read the comments on this site by the viewers. Muslims tried to blow you up? Muslims who did July 7th? etc.

Amazingly ignorant and an example of the anti-Muslim views held by a lot of people. What about Christians who blew up London throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s? Noone tarnished your religion when the IRA did it and noone referred to them as Christians.

Noone says that Hinduism or Buddhism is a blood thristy violent religion when Tamil suicide bombers invented the practice and have perpetrated more suicide bombings that any other group in the world.

What about the fanatical Christains (Bush and Blair) who illegally invaded Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims? Should the Muslim world tarnish all Christians (including the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury) for this? I thought not. Double standards.

- Nish, London England

The attack on the Imam is to be condemned, but it seems to me that the media falls over backwards to appease Muslim opinion. Let's not shoot the messengers and concentarate on working as one community to resolve bigotry, assuming that was the reason for the attack.

- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK

It is very sad that that man was stabbed, but maybe now Muslims will stop preaching anti-British views outside this mosque, as it was only a few weeks back that this mosque was in the news for doing just that.

- Brandon Thomas, London UK

This is totally unacceptable. Had this happened to a priest or a another religious leader, it would have been on all the news channels, newspapers. The government and the police would be all over it. Why has the government not done anything to the media for putting hatred for Muslims in people? The government allows unjust activities to happen like this and then they fail to see why terrorists attacked London. I believe due to the goverment's own ignorance and unfair policies, we Londoners are suffereing on both sides.

- M Rahman, London, UK

I really disagree with the statement that the media is reponsible for spreading hatred towards Muslims. How on earth can any sane-minded journalist put a positive spin on Islamic terrorism and the murder of people in this, or any other country? Violence of any type and towards any innocent folk is deplorable. I wish the Iman a speedy recovery and an equally rapid bringing to justice of his attacker, but I wonder if anyone could be batty enough to suggest that racism and prejudice is the reason our jails are filling up with Muslim criminals and not as a result of the actions of those Mulim adherents themselves. A book aimed at educating children about difference and diversity, and intending to promote tolerance, widely used in nursery and school settings explains that it is often difficult for Muslims to live in the western world. Now, is that the fault of us in the west, are we not making enough effort? Should we abandon our beliefs, our history and other aspects of our cuture because, maybe, they are bad- and replace everything with something else a bit more or a lot more likely to be within some Muslims' comfort zone? Another notion might be that the book's author or authors is or are playing a serious part in perpetrating untruths about Islam. A friend of mine was killed in the London bus bombing. As a teacher, I must never practise discrimination in my work and never would but I hate the killer and that's not the fault of anyone-just the murderer who killed for Islam.

- Daisy, Bristol, England

I think it says a lot that it has taken three days for any news of this to appear. Had it been an attack on a Christian or Jewish establishment/religious person you can bet it would have been front page within hours. A very sad statement indeed.

- Kerri, London, UK

In the light of mass atrocities worldwide committed by Muslims, 9/11 being one of the major (not forgetting the 7/7 tube bombing by British Muslims) anyone would expect that there would be repercussions in the respective countries carried out by hot-headed people, who are not in the mainstream. Just as all Muslims claim they are not the same, this goes for us as well. The real worry in this country is not a few isolated incidents of 'Islamaphobia' but the implication by greater and greater control of our speech and actions that we are all disposed to hate Muslims and capable of attacks on them. Inflammatory reporting in the media feeds a government determined to push through more and more spurious control. Past events show it's the Muslims whose thoughts and actions need controlling not us and ours.

- Victor Chisholm, London

I am still surprised that not a single big news broadcaster such as Sky, BBC or CNN, has mentioned this terrible incident which took place in the central Mosque in London.
I was on my way to the mosque when I was told that the mosque was closed by the police and then re-opened but never thought of this horrible act. It’s such horrible act which was racially-motivated & full of hatred towards Muslims. I would never be surprised if a priest was attacked by a Muslim as it would be covered in all the media, this shows how double-standard the media is.

This Imam called Mohamed, he is a very peaceful man and he always works hard to spread the tolerance & understanding between cultures & religions. I’ve heard that the Imam is still in hospital and he now lost one eye. May Allah heal him soon

- Tarek Alwan, London

It is quite rich that the MCB spokesman blames the media for "fermenting much of this Islamaphobic prejudice and hatred against British Muslims". I don't think there would be any prejudice and hatred to 'foment' if some of the British Muslims hadn't blown us up on a tube train in the first place. So, Mr. MCB spokesman, get your facts and priorities right.

- Judith Chisholm, London

How typical - blame the media (messenger) as usual.

- Pat, Sussex

Whilst the attack itself is abhorrent, the Muslim Council of Britain are implying that this is an attack which is based on racial hatred. What evidence do they have of this exactly? Are they basing this purely on the fact that the victim was an imam in a mosque and therefore the attacker was a non-Muslim thereby implying that Muslim on Muslim violence doesn't exist?

- Pa Roddy, London

Do we know for sure that this attack was not carried out by a Muslim? If not, perhaps it would be wise to not second-guess the police.

- Mike, London

It is scary to know that someone would go into a mosque and attack someone like that. As a Muslim woman it is hard enough when people stare because you have on a hijab (head scarf) and call you names but I'm even more scared now that someone could stab me.

Regents Park Mosque is my local mosque, I attend on a regular basis, so it upsets me deeply to hear my Imam has been attacked and it's worrying the fact someone could come back and do a similar thing.
The Imam was attacked on Friday and when I went to the mosque on Saturday 11th August there was no sort of police or anything outside the mosque which I thought was quite strange seeing as someone had been assaulted.

I just wish people would not rely so deeply on information given by the media as it is not always true and true Muslims are not terrorists. If these small minded people actually read the Quran they would know it is a sin to commit suicide. Yes there are some extremists but a huge amount of Muslims are not.

Muslims are just normal people who are trying to get on with their lives but it seems people can't move on from the mistakes some Muslims made in the past or are still making.


- Leila Rahim, London, UK

It isn't the media that are creating Islamaphobia, it's the terrorists that are attempting to kill us in the name of Islam.

- Casper, London UK

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