[Johnny Wadd]

An Islamic centre in north London has been destroyed by a fire in an apparent racially motivated attack.

It is not yet known whether the Al-Rahma Islamic Centre, which is listed as a mosque, was set alight deliberately in the early hours.

However Met Police has confirmed the letters EDL (English Defence League) were sprayed onto the two-storey building in Muswell Hill.

The centre is used by the Somali Bravanese Welfare Association.

The Met's Counter Terrorism Command are investigating the cause of the fire, on Coppetts Road, which is being treated as suspicious at this stage.

BBC London correspondent Kurt Barling, who is at the scene, said the centre's leaders had told him they had seen freshly sprayed racist graffiti on the building and that they were concerned the fire was in reaction to the killing of a soldier in Woolwich. Two men have been charged in connection with the attack.

'Appalled and saddened'
Abubakar Ali, from the centre, said: "The Somali community is in fear.

"We are all shocked about what has happened and we strongly condemn the attack on the centre. As you can see, the situation is a very serious one indeed.

"We are appalled and deeply saddened by the horrific and foolish act against a peaceful community. While no one was thankfully physically hurt in the attack, the effects of this crime will be felt very deeply."

Borough Ch Supt Adrian Usher said: "I have spoken to community leaders and assured them that a thorough investigation is being conducted.

"The safety of our communities is always our priority and we are consulting widely, offering our support and reassurance.

"All communities can be confident that they have our support and I can be contacted personally to answer their concerns."

Two properties were evacuated and no-one was reported to be injured however one woman was treated for shock.

A fire service spokesman said the brigade was called at 03:14 BST.

Six fire engines and about 35 firefighters tackled the blaze which was brought under control just over an hour later

This place was 5 mins on foot away(or 25 seconds in the car)from my house,it used to be a Youth centre 'til the cuts of the early 90's,then reopened late 90's as Somali's & Muslims only,makes you wonder why the local kids probably burned it down

[chefbob09]

this is terrible, I hope they catch the people who did this, I mean running over, stabbing and attempting to chop of a soldiers head in full view of women and children does not warrant such behaviour...

[Johnny Wadd]

Love the sarcasm Bob

[Johnny Wadd]

We have anti-terrorist Police here asking bullshit questions about,for more or less,the burning down of a 2 storey shithole,why the fuck is this terrorist related,anyone in the know,please help

[kellyhound]

vid

[ices]

Oh wait, let me find the buckets to catch all the tears from us English folk about a place of worship barred to the majority of westerners.

Oh oh oh...FUCK OFF!

Some Islamic shithole gets burned down? I am even happier it was a somali shithole, god knows I hate those types of people. Dirty bastards the lot of them.

Some church gets vandalised, or another example recently, the WW2 bomber command momorial gets sprayed with "ISLAM".

Is that not racism? Is that not stoking the fire?

Its high time the establishment realised Islam shouldn't even be in the country, let alone allowed to develop the fucking balls to carry out such violence and acts against this country.

And for those who think this is terrible, they should be thrown out of the country too, let them live with muslims and then realise how stupid they are for going along for the ride.

"yay muslims!"

[Bletch]

GOOD!

[ldelgadillo]

they are shocked, appalled and saddened by this horrific attack on a peaceful community are they fucking serious

[Stray_Bullet]

Bob, you hit the nail on the head in a great way

Interested in something, maybe Mr. Wadd can answer, but wouldn't them barring non muslim/somali people from the building be a violation of a person's rights, particularly religious discrimination if the person is not islamic, or is the property privately owned and skates around it like that?

[Bletch]

This is just the beginning! The reality will be much much worse!