Islamic leaders will today call on British Muslims to stage peaceful protests against the air strikes on Afghanistan.
Around 100 Islamic scholars from across Britain and Europe met in Birmingham yesterday to define the concept of jihad - translated in the western media as holy war - and to ask British Muslims to join a new jihad.
Mr Faizul Aqtab Siddiqi, president of the London-based International Muslim Organisation, said: "Jihad is misunderstood in the media. To say jihad is an armed holy war is like saying the Salvation Army has bombs. Jihad is a struggle which Muslims undertake within the law - with the pen, with money, by writing to MPs, by talking to the media.
"We are a law-abiding community. We urge the people of Britain to struggle within their means and through demonstrations. We urge people to express in the clearest terms that they will struggle against any injustice - and the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan is a grave injustice." A large part of Britain's three million Muslim population is expected to take part in peaceful demonstrations across Britain.
Mr Siddiqi said Islamic scholars would write to the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, today expressing concerns about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
They would suggest he allowed a delegation of British Muslim elders to see conclusive proof of Osama bin Laden's involvement on the recent terrorist attacks on the US. A British delegation would be prepared to take evidence to Afghanistan and attempt to persuade bin Laden to surrender himself for trial by an international court with a Muslim contingent.
Speaking for all the scholars present, Mr Siddiqi said the attacks on the US were "extremely regrettable" but "symptomatic of a worldwide problem".
Unless the misconceptions surrounding the words terrorism and jihad were clarified, and the west carefully considered its foreign policy, western countries would find themselves fighting "thousands of Osama bin Ladens".
Muslims in Britain also expressed serious concerns for their safety. Mr Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said there had been more than 160 assaults on Muslims in Britain since September 11th.
Mr Shadjareh said: "We thought attacks on Muslims might fall off after the US began strikes against Afghanistan. But the scale of attacks has continued. While this meeting was going on, an Islamic human rights campaigner in Birmingham called me to say she had been the victim of another attack on her home. She has been attacked four times since September 20th. She has had bricks, firecrackers and eggs thrown at her windows. We have seen a decline in the attendance of mosques because of fear."
Mr Shadjareh said since the air strikes against Afghanistan began, two Muslim women students at Cambridge University, England, had had their headscarves ripped off in the street, a mosque was set on fire in Southend-on-Sea, east of London, and several attacks were reported in Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.
"We know isolated individuals are perpetrating these attacks. But there is a feeling in some parts that Muslims are under siege."