The first charter flight bringing Syrian refugees to the UK has touched down in Scotland amid growing concerns of reprisal attacks on members of the Muslim community and asylum seekers following the Paris bombings.
The plane carrying 103 people from camps surrounding the war-torn country touched down at Glasgow Airport from Amman in Jordan, via Beirut.
Representatives from the five local authorities in the west of Scotland and Edinburgh where they will be housed met them. Dozens of the families, clutching young children, arrived last night and were taken to a centre for the homeless in Glasgow before being moved to their new homes.
Syrian refugees in Scotland: all you need to know
Downing Street said all refugees had undergone “rigorous” security checks before boarding the plane. At least one of the attackers in Friday’s Paris atrocity, which killed 129 people, is believed to have entered Europe through Greece posing as a refugee from Syria.
A Glasgow University academic warned the newly arrived refugees face a potentially difficult transition to life in Scotland in the wakes of events in France. "We must be prepared for a negative reception from some people," said asylum and refugee resettlement expert Teresa Piacentini.
Leading Muslim voices in Scotland said the community felt “under attack” and treated as an “enemy within” as a backlash to the atrocities was linked to a series of hate-crimes across the country.
Mosque leaders are to make a call for vociferous condemnation of any Islamophobic incidents, with one prominent Scots Muslim describing a “free-for-all” and the community “thrust back to a post 9/11 Groundhog Day”.
The Glasgow Central Mosque, the country’s largest, will also appeal for greater efforts to keep its community safe from attacks and abuse and a solidarity with other faiths.
Last night it emerged that a ninth attacker may have been involved in the Paris shootings and blasts.
Details of a surveillance video have been revealed which reportedly show a third figure in a car carrying the group of gunmen in the French capital who attacked several bars and restaurants with guns.
However, it is unclear whether it is one of two suspected accomplices detained in Belgium or is on the run with Belgian-born French suspect Salah Abdeslam.
Meanwhile, David Cameron signalled plans for a fresh Commons vote on UK air strikes in Syria to combat the threat from Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the murders.
The Prime Minister told MPs that Britain should attack the “head of the snake”.
He said he would bring forward a “comprehensive” strategy designed to win support for bombing Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria as well as in Iraq. Details are expected to be revealed by the end of this month.
MPs rejected military action in Syria in 2013, in an embarrassing defeat for Mr Cameron’s foreign policy.
Today a new report by the Royal United Services Institute think tank says the Paris attacks have strengthened the case for UK intervention. It also predicts that pressure will now build to resolve the issue “one way or another”.
It comes as deliberate firebomb attack yesterday on an Islamic cultural centre in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, is linked with revenge attacks for Paris, while a takeaway owner is being treated for a serious eye injury after a racist attack in the wake of the terror atrocities.
Shouts of “Isis” were heard as Mohammed Khalid, 53, was targeted by around a dozen people outside the Caspian Fast Food outlet in Methil, Fife.
Prominent lawyer Aamer Anwar, who is assisting the Central Mosque, said the refugee crisis in Europe had led to a ratcheting up of the Paris fall-out debate, with the knock-on that Scots Muslims were being made to feel “like the enemy within”
Mr Anwar said: “One each and every occasion where we’ve been faced with one of these atrocities the mosque is amongst the first to speak out. Now they clearly feel under attack.
“There have been a number of quite horrific attacks where people could have lost their lives. There’s a genuine feeling a climate of fear has descended.
“Police Scotland, politicians and civic Scotland have done a fantastic job in how they’ve reacted and condemned Islamophobic incidents. But there’s a concern that on the ground that message isn’t getting through.
“Taxi drivers, shop workers, people going about their business are feeling the abuse. The Muslim community is one of law-abiding, peace-loving people who fulfil their role in the community. Imposing a climate of fear on this community, amongst its young people, is exactly what ISIS want.”
Nabeel Shaikh, general secretary of Glasgow Central Mosque, said the attack in Bishopbriggs had heightened the anxiety amongst his congregation.
He added: “The chatter within the community is don’t let your wives, daughters or sisters go out alone, make sure someone goes with them. Which is just ridiculous considering where we live."
Mr Shaikh had previously told of concerns at the emergence of Islamophobic incidents in areas with no history of it, including the racial abuse of a female shopper in Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire.
Ahmed Owusu-Konadu, a leader within the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Glasgow, said advice had gone out throughout the UK urging caution and recommending Muslims should remain at home until satisfied any backlash had passed.
He said: “The message wasn’t just directed at women. It was sent to everyone in our community and is a measure we always take. It’s simply advice not an authoritative statement.”
Grahame Smith, general secretary of the STUC, said the organisation was ‘saddened’ by the rise in community tensions.
He added: "Scotland’s Muslim community cannot, and should not, be held responsible for the despicable acts of extremists here, across Europe or in Syria.”
Last night a minute’s silence was observed by 90,000 football fans before England's 2-0 friendly win against France at Wembley to remember the Paris victims. Applause rang out earlier after supporters sang the national anthem, La Marseillaise. They then held up red, white and blue cards to form a giant Tricolor.
The Duke of Cambridge was joined by France manager Didier Deschamps and England’s Roy Hodgson in laying flowers by the pitch before kick off. Germany's friendly against the Netherlands in Hannover was called off after the authorities received a threat to explode a device in the stadium.
Turkish fans booed during the minute's silence for the victims of the Paris attacks before their team's goal-less friendly draw with Greece.
A drunk woman was arrested yesterday in Boston after she tried to open an exit hatch on a transatlantic British Airways flight. Police are not linking the incident to terrorism.
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