Surge in racist attacks after Tube bombings

Osama Saeed, of the Muslim Association of Britain in Scotland, said he believed that many more incidents were going unreported.

He said: "Anecdotally, we've heard many more accounts of racist attacks against Muslims in the last month.

"Unfortunately, there is a lack of confidence in the Muslim community that their complaints will be believed or taken seriously so they often don't feel confident enough to report it.

"It is not just Glasgow and Edinburgh, it is across the whole country."

The comments came as it emerged that crimes motivated by religious hatred have soared by nearly 600- percent in London since the bombings.

The gang of racists targeted the two young Asian men as they parked a car in Edinburgh.

Making comments about the London bombings, one of the them kicked the victims' vehicle, denting it. Another man then threw a hammer through its window, smashing the glass and hitting the passenger on the shoulder.

The two victims, who are aged 18 and 20, managed to escape by driving away as the gang surrounded the vehicle.

Police are still hunting a white man who launched an unprovoked assault on two Asian boys aged 16 and 11 in Leith Walk.

The attacker punched the older boy to the ground, causing him to knock his head on the pavement and hurled racial abuse at the youngsters on July 13 .

Shami Khan, Edinburgh's only Asian city councillor, said:

"There are so many cases I can think of where people aren't going to the police because they're frightened. We're talking nearly every day.

"Asian people feel harassed.

But the London bombers are criminals, they're not Muslims.

Even if they came from Muslim communities according to our religion they are no longer Muslims themselves because of what they have done."

The hammer attack came just a fortnight after police in the capital promised to step up patrols around mosques and other places of worship to protect ethnic minorities.

Police patrols are also paying extra visits to ethnic-run shops and other businesses.

Nina Giles, director of Edinburgh's Racial Equality Council, added: "People have been ringing up Asian businesses and calling whoever answers a terrorist. It's appalling."

John Neilson, Strathclyde Police assistant chief constable with responsibility for community safety, urged any victims of similar attacks to come forward.

He said: "We will not tolerate anyone becoming a victim of crime on account of their ethnic origin, race or religion. We would appeal to anyone who is targeted to come forward and report the matter, either directly to the police or through a third-party reporting agency."

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard figures showed there were 269 crimes motivated by religious hatred reported since the suicide bombings compared to only 40 in the same three-anda-half week period last year.

They included verbal and physical attacks and criminal damage to property including mosques.

In the immediate three-day aftermath of the attacks there were 68 faith hate crimes in London. There were none in the same period 12 months ago.

Tarique Ghaffur, Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, said: "There is no doubt that incidents impacting on the Muslim community have increased." Most of the incidents were low-level abuse or minor assaults but they had a great "emotional impact" on communities, he said.

The figures emerged as Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, held the first in a series of meetings with representatives of Britain's Muslim community.

Those meetings come amid increasing concerns that young Muslims are being targeted by police in stop-and-search operations.

But Ms Blears pledged that Muslims would not be discriminated against.

Malcolm Chisholm, the communities minister, is also due to meet Scotland's Muslim leaders tomorrow in a bid to improve community relations.