No terrorists’ haven in Liverpool, say Muslims

Jul 5 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL’S Muslim leaders yesterday warned terrorists would be hunted out and find no sanctuary in the city if they wanted to kill and injure innocent people.

Dr Mohammed Akbah Ali, chairman of the Liverpool Mosque and Islamic Institute spoke at a press conference held in the next street to where a house was raided at the weekend under anti-terror laws.

He said the Muslim community was shocked by the arrests of two former Liverpool doctors in connection with car bombs found in London on Friday and the attack at Glasgow airport on Saturday.

He highlighted concerns about police activity, especially at the raided houses on Ramilies Road in Allerton and Hatherley Street in Toxteth, which will remain cordoned off indefinitely.

At the conference in the Pakistani Centre near Hatherley Street, Dr Ali said: “If anyone has any idea that they will find some sanctuary or a place to hide after such activities then he has it absolutely wrong, they will be hunted out.”

When asked whether Gordon Brown’s new use of rhetoric to try to stop Islamophobia would help ease tension, he said: “I think how Gordon Brown’s government has started is helpful but whenever I have talked to young people they say ‘what about what is happening in Palestine and Iraq’.

“The relationship between central government and local communities has to be improved.”

Dr Ali said neither of the city’s mosques, the LMII off Penny Lane and the Al-rhama mosque, off Princes Avenue, in Toxteth, would start interrogating people about their beliefs and emphasised that nobody had yet been charged.

He added that he did not know the arrested men but said some members of mosques probably would.

It comes as George Howarth, Labour MP for Knowsley North and Sefton East yesterday said to tackle terrorism “we need the Muslim community to provide strong leadership from within that community.”

He called for a “bipartisan approach” if the country was to succeed in fighting terror.

Six people were still being questioned last night at London’s high security Paddington Green police station, including Sabeel Ahmed, 36, who was arrested on Lime Street on Sunday morning.

Dr Ahmed studied at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, in Bangalore, as did Dr Mohammed Haneef, his cousin, who is being questioned in Brisbane, Australia after being arrested at the airport on Tuesday.

Both are thought to have practised at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital at some time, although a spokesman has declined to comment.

Dr Haneef was a locum at Halton Hospital in 2005 and Dr Ahmed has worked at Warrington and Halton.

An Australian judge has extended the time allowed to detain Dr Haneef but authorities released another man who they were questioning, reported to be Dr Mohammed Asif Ali who was also said to have worked in Merseyside, saying he had no connection to the plot.