LONDON: Britain may no longer be the land of tolerance and acceptance, at least for their Muslim community after a recent spat of incidents this year highlighted the growing anti-Islamic fervor gripping the country. For Muslims, the recent attack on a home in Bingham has once again thrown the battle over tolerance and acceptance versus hate to the forefront for Muslims in Britain. According to the BBC, graffiti was painted on a Muslim family's home after a ham was left on their doorstep recently. Police officials in London told Bikyamasr.com the perpetrators should be charged with hate crimes. “My kids are scared and crying," the 39-year-old Muslim father told the BBC News Online. “They are in fear of their lives." The offensive graffiti attacking Islam was painted on the family path last Saturday morning and has left Muslims across the UK worried about a rise in violence directed towards them. “It is definitely worrisome,” 34-year-old waiter Yussif Hamed on Edgeware Road in the heart of London, told Bikyamasr.com. “We are almost always hearing negative things, even though I have lived here my whole life.” The attack is not the first on the family who has just moved to Bingham last October after the mother separated from her husband. The husband told the BBC he was forced to move in with his family to protect them from other attacks. The 31-year-old mother and their two sons, 8 and 10, have reporteldy been attacked by at least five racist incidents since they moved to Bingham. The most recent attack occurred three weeks ago when the family found a cross wrapped in ham left on their doorstep. “Two days after the first incident I saw the eldest on the laptop looking at a map, looking for escape routes in case anything goes wrong," the father said. “I'm not even a strict Muslim at all, so for this to happen to my family is a joke.” The Muslim father believes that the attack clearly targets his wife. In June, A British man, returning to the United Kingdom refused to allow a Muslim woman civil servant to check his passport. “I don't want to be seen by that," Anthony Holt, 65, was quoted by local British news sources as saying of the woman, who wears a hijab. Holt was fined 145 British pounds and ordered to pay another 100 for compensation over the anti-Muslim tirade and abuse directed at the customs official. He pleaded guilty of using “religiously aggravated threatening words or behavior." According to his lawyer, the 65-year-old had become upset up after reading an article in the Daily Mail about the “victimization of Christianity" on a flight into Manchester. At immigration, the retired consultant then refused be checked through by Sayima Mohammed. Holt said he did not “want to be seen by any Muslim in a position of authority. I want to be seen by someone who's English. This is England. This is my country. I'm not into all this Islam." As Mohammed burst into tears, her colleagues refused to check Holt's passport and ordered him to calm down. When police arrived, Holt turned his attention to a police officer, saying: “That's Islam. I'm not going to that. This is my country." During a police interview Holt claimed the abuse was not “personal." He said: “The problem I have is with Islam as a whole. It's threat to the British population and the British way of life. I wanted to take a stand." But Muslims in the UK are concerned that Holt is simply a result of the anti-Islamic rhetoric being spouted by conservative newspapers and tabloids in the country that are fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment across the country. In a statement to police, Mohammed said she “felt threatened, shocked and humiliated to be treated in that manner for no apparent reason."
