Brent: Vicious assaults on members of the Muslim community have risen dramatically since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Children are being bullied and taunted at schools because of their religion, while Muslim women are encountering greater isolation due to verbal or physical abuse and are facing more difficulty in going shopping and leading a normal life, community members have claimed.

During a meeting of the Health Action Zone held on Thursday last week, residents also added that there were fears about reporting attacks and discrimination.

The police, Brent Council and local health services have condemned the rise in hate crime over the past two months.

A spokeswoman for the combined agencies said they were working together to support Muslims and remove the fear of racism by tackling issues at a strategic level.

She added that the Brent and Harrow Health Authority and North West London Hospitals NHS Trust have reaffirmed a zero tolerance policy to abuse of Muslim staff.

"We want to encourage and support the Muslim community to report any incidents of hate crime so that the perpetrators can be identified and dealt with by the criminal justice system.

"We also aim to provide a full range of services such as advice, information and counselling to any member of the community who has been the victim of verbal or physical abuse."

The meeting at Central Middlesex Hospital included Sir Graham Morgan, the Trust's director of nursing, Chief Inspector Mike Smith, Reverend Steve Nolan, of Kingsbury Free Church, Mariam Osman, of Tawakl Refugee Families Association and Jhalida Khan, from the An-nisa Society.

December 6, 2001 16:04