This is an awful example of treating entire Muslim communities as suspicious and their democratic representatives as too unreliable to be trusted.
It stems from the same mentality that saw parts of the “Prevent” anti-extremism programme degenerate into police forces spying on Muslims’ political and religious views.
It is no accident that this has happened in Birmingham. Last year an Institute of Race Relations report revealed that Prevent work in Birmingham was being directly managed by a counterterrorism police officer.
Anwar Akhtar on the installation of spy cameras in Muslim neighbourhoods in Birmingham.