BRITAIN: The arrest of suspected terrorists is causing unease among Muslims in Leicester, writes Rachel Donnelly
It is shortly before three o'clock and the mosques in Leicester's Highfields area are calling the faithful to prayer. Men walk quickly down the narrow street, past redbrick terraced houses into the Taqwa mosque, identified this week as the mosque where two French Algerian men charged with membership of the al-Qaeda terrorist network went to pray.
So far, Leicestershire police are questioning 17 people as part of a pan-European terrorist investigation and the Muslim community in Highfields and neighbouring Northfields is nervous. Outside the Taqwa mosque, which is a small, unremarkable terraced house at the end of Asfordby Street, the men going to prayer are reluctant to talk about the arrests. But once inside, they confirm that at least "two or three" of the men arrested, including Mr Baghdad Meziane, who has been charged with directing terrorism, regularly attended prayer. "They came here, they are entitled to come here and pray. That does not concern us at all," says one man.
Highfields is a working-class area of Leicester that has seen better days. There are signs of neglect - there are sofas dumped in the street, smashed windows and derelict buildings. But the locals are proud and keen to ensure the area does not gain a reputation "as a hotbed for terrorists" as one shop owner explained.
"Some people are saying that these terrorists came to Leicester because they could hide in our Muslim community," said Iqbal, who lives on Wood Hill, close to where some of the men were arrested. "Some people may have been protecting them, I don't know, but we didn't protect them, we didn't know what they were doing." Wood Hill's newsagent is busy with mothers and children buying sweets. The women, who did not want to give their names, say they are worried that others could be arrested "just for talking to the men who were taken away".
Senior Muslim leaders in Leicester have been keen to stress that they have found no evidence of people building support for al -Qaeda or any other terrorist group in Leicester's 16 large mosques. Ethnic minorities make up about 40 per cent of Leicester's population and the Muslim leaders insist they have good race relations with the other communities.
Mr Manzoor Moghal, of the Leicester Federation of Muslim Organisations, said yesterday the arrests were "bound to create a lot of gossip", but he predicted that far right groups would find it difficult to capitalise on them. "The far right might try to exploit the situation for their own political advantage, but I don't think they have a chance because there are strong bonds between the communities," he said.
For 13-year-old Mohammed and his friend, who does not want to give his name, the possibility that terrorists have been living in their community is "very frightening". They have just finished school for the week and as they walk up Prospect Hill towards their homes in Highfields, they say they are fearful for Muslims. "When we heard about the arrests," Mohammed says, "we were scared. We didn't know this was going on."
Several men at the Jam-Se mosque are removing their shoes to get ready for prayer. Inside, a sign on the wall says no leaflets may be distributed without imam's permission. An elderly man gently guides me to the door, saying women are not allowed inside. But before we leave, he tells me: "We want nothing to do with the Muslims who talk about violence. We live quietly here in Britain. We work and we talk of prayer, not violence."