A Muslim man has been beaten to death outside a corner shop by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him, the Guardian reported yesterday.
The killing comes amid fears of a backlash against British Muslims following the London bombings.
Kamal Raza Butt, 48, from Pakistan, was visiting Britain to see friends and family. On Sunday afternoon he went to a shop in Nottingham, northern England, to buy cigarettes and was first called "Taliban" by the youths and then set upon.
Nottinghamshire police described the incident as racially aggravated, not as Islamophobic, angering Muslim groups and surprising some senior officers.
They say it was not connected to a backlash against Muslims following the London bombings, which has seen mosques firebombed and Muslims attacked in the street.
On Monday the case was discussed at the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), where senior police officers and Muslim community representatives meet.
Senior sources who were at the meeting last night said it was the view of all present that the killing was a hate crime triggered by his faith.
Muslim leaders on Tuesday night said the killing and the fact that it was Islamophobic would heighten anxiety in their communities, which was already high before the London bombings and which has deepened with every report of attacks.
Nine youths, some of them juveniles, have been arrested by police.
According to several sources, the man had gone to a shop in the The Leadows area of the city around 4.30pm on Sunday to buy cigarettes when the youths asked him to hand them over.
When he refused they shouted that he was Taliban, a reference to the hardline Muslim government that ran Afghanistan and harbored al-Qaeda terrorists.
The man was punched and fell to the ground and later died in hospital. Police have yet to officially announce the results of a postmortem examination.
Azad Ali, who chairs the MSF, said: "You can't class this as racist, there was no racist abuse shouted at him, it was Islamophobic."
"It is good the police have made arrests. We are disappointed that they have misclassified it, especially after all the advice to be more alert to Islamophobic hate crime," he said.
Planning for the aftermath of a terrorist attack on Britain has included extensive work on limiting any backlash and assuring Muslims, already distrustful of the police, that they could expect protection from any reprisals.
Guidelines from the UK's Association of Chief Police Officers say that forces should identify religious hate crimes and be open about it, because that may help their investigations and reassure the communities affected.
Ali added that the murder would stoke fears among Britain's 1.6 million Muslims: "This has sent shivers down the community. People are very worried, if this is the start of an escalation."
A police source said there was no clear evidence linking the murder to the backlash against Muslims following the bombings.
Superintendent Dave Colbeck, of Nottinghamshire police, said: "It would be inappropriate to comment on the possible motive."
"It is a localized incident and we are not looking at it as anything other than an isolated incident," he said.
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