Counter-terror cops probe suspected anti-Muslim 'attacks' in Edinburgh

Police in Scotland said on Saturday that counter-terrorism officers were investigating several “violent attacks” the previous evening in Edinburgh that injured five men in suspected anti-Muslim incidents. Police Scotland said a 36-year-old white Scottish man had been arrested and that there was no further threat to the public. Footage posted online showed a bare-chested man — purportedly the suspect — roaming streets of the Scottish capital with a large weapon. “Counter Terrorism Policing Scotland is investigating, supported by other specialist colleagues and local policing officers,” police said in a statement. It added officers had received multiple emergency calls late Friday from people reporting “violent attacks including threats, robbery and vandalism across Edinburgh, with five men injured”. The victims — two aged 22, and others aged 24, 27, and 39 — sustained various injuries and three required hospital treatment, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, according to police. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said he was “deeply concerned” by the incidents. “There is no place for violence, racism or intolerance in our country,” he added on X. Both the Scottish Association of Mosques and the anti-Islamophobia non-profit Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) said several of the victims were Muslims. MEND noted the alleged footage of the arrested man circulating online also showed him shouting about “protecting the country” from Muslims, accompanied by expletive-filled language. MEND urged police to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror”. The incident comes with tensions heightened across the UK over immigration and diversity, amid claims that far-right agitators are fuelling racist sentiment after a number of high-profile incidents. The Northern Irish capital, Belfast, saw two nights of serious disorder last week after a knife attack, allegedly perpetrated by a Sudanese refugee, was captured on camera and went