Scottish Muslims say attacks on them are worse than ever as a senior church minister blames the trend on hate rhetoric from the likes of Donald Trump.
Ajaz Mohammed, chairman of Dunfermline Islamic Mosque, said Muslims are being targeted in a backlash against ISIS by those who think the terror group’s warped interpretation of Islam is representative of the faith.
Church of Scotland minister The Very Rev Andrew McLellan said figures like Mr Trump have helped create a “dangerous” climate where violence and intimidation against Muslims can thrive.
Mr Mohammed said many Muslims now live in fear after an escalation in violence over the past year, including a vandal attack on a Dundee mosque and a vicious assault on Fife takeaway workers.
“Scotland has always been a very accepting place and it does not have the scale of problems we see elsewhere in the world,” he said.
“But this is the first time we have seen mosques attacked, graffiti being written and people shouting derogatory comments about race and religion in this way. In the last 30 years there has never been anything like this. It feels like a different time, it’s volatile.”
Mr Mohammed, a father-of-two who owns bars and restaurants in Fife, added: “There is always the worry that people will have a pig’s head end up outside their shop or someone will walk in off the street and give them abuse over their race and religion or they will be physically attacked.
“This is being stoked up by ISIS and events like the Paris attacks and it’s like there’s an attempt to avenge those kind of things. This is exactly what ISIS are trying to do. They are trying to create divisions in the community.”
He compared ISIS and its hijacking of Islam with the KKK, which claimed to be Christian but “did not uphold Christian values”.
Communities should react by showing the public what Islam is really about, Mr Mohammed added. One way he said they are doing that is inviting the public into the mosque, with a drive in getting school groups in to have a look.
Earlier this year Dunfermline Muslims told Mr McLellan that Islamophobic attacks were “much worse in the last year than ever before”.
“I was ashamed. The peace of Scotland is at stake unless Christians and Muslims learn to love each other,” the minister told Dunfermline Abbey on Sunday.
Mr McLellan singled out Mr Trump who called for US borders to be closed to Muslims after the Paris attacks as he despaired at the “simply ignorant” trend to label Christianity as a religion of peace and Islam as one of war.
“More and more we hear, Christianity is good and Islam is bad. And the more I hear that the more dangerous it sounds,” he added.
Police Scotland had not responded to a request for comment by the time The Courier went to press.