As Spain’s socialist party vows to remove all Spanish troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Spanish people take a shocking and disheartening turn toward appeasement, Spanish Muslims exhibit once again that unsettling, off key response to the attacks by their radical Islamic brethren: Reprisal fears running high.

Proof that al-Qaeda or other Islamic militants carried out the Madrid bombings would create a nightmare for Muslim residents of Madrid, who fear it could fuel a new wave of animosity towards them.

“Terrorism is blind, it simply seeks out the weakest people,” said Ahmed, 38, a Moroccan who has lived in the Spanish capital for 13 years.

“We’re victims too, and if it turns out to be al-Qaeda, we’ll be double victims.” …

Those most willing in Lavapies to express fears that al-Qaeda was to blame came from non-Muslim countries.

“Not all Basques belong to ETA, nor all Arabs to al-Qaeda. But if it turns out that al-Qaeda is behind this tragedy, people will turn against the Arabs around here,” said Gema, a shop assistant whose family is from Vietnam.

If Muslim extremists planted the bombs, the prejudices of old Spain - isolated under a dictatorship for almost 40 years until 1975 and relatively unused to immigrant residents until recently - could surface.

As it turns out, they needn’t have worried.