Fearful UK mosques on alert over far-right protests [Video]

British Muslims voiced fear about far-right protests that have targeted UK mosques in recent days, as community leaders bolstered security at Islamic centres before more demonstrations planned for Saturday.

Agitators have targeted Islamic places of worship since unsubstantiated rumours spread online that the teenage suspect behind a knife attack that killed three girls in northwest England on Monday was Muslim.

Demonstrators threw bricks at a mosque on Tuesday night in Southport, the city where 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana is accused of carrying out the mass stabbing, in riots police blamed on the far-right English Defence League.

Then on Friday evening, protesters shouted Islamophobic chants, and threw beer cans and bricks at police outside a mosque in the northeastern English city of Sunderland.

“The Muslim community is deeply anxious right now, really distressed about what they’ve seen,” Zara Mohammed, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), told AFP on Friday.

Prime …