Cameron is completing the policy Blair had begun to implement, argues Robert Lambert.
See also Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer, “The fiery birth of the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy: England’s Summer of Discontent, ten years on”, Open Democracy, 3 June 2011
Four police officers accused of beating up a Muslim terrorism suspect and mocking his religion were cleared of any wrongdoing by a London court on Friday.
The officers from London’s Territorial Support Group (TSG) were on trial on charges of violently assaulting Babar Ahmad during a dawn raid on his home in December 2003 as part of a counter-terrorism operation.
In 2009, the Metropolitan Police admitted wrongdoing over the arrest and paid Ahmad £60,000 in damages. However, the officers’ lawyer said a listening device planted in Ahmad’s home before his arrest backed their account of events.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court took less than an hour to clear Police Constables Roderick James-Bowen, Mark Jones, and Nigel Cowley and Detective Constable John Donohue of causing actual bodily harm. “The officers look forward to returning to work. They are hoping that they will be able to put these unfounded and unsubstantiated allegations behind them,” their lawyer Colin Reynolds told reporters.
Ahmad, 37, was never charged in relation to his arrest but is in custody awaiting extradition to America for alleged terrorism offenses. British courts have granted the extradition but Ahmad appealed and the case has not yet been resolved.
Prosecutors told the court that before the raid on Ahmad’s south London home, officers had been briefed that he had received terrorism training and had fought overseas in support of holy war.
Police had feared Ahmad would resist but prosecutors said in fact he had remained submissive. It was alleged that he was assaulted despite being restrained and officers had put him in a Muslim prayer position and asked him “Where is your God now?” When he arrived at the police station, pictures showed he was battered and bruised.
However, the four constables denied Ahmad’s claims and said he had violently resisted and that had led to his injuries.
Belgium was set Wednesday to become the second European Union country to enforce a ban on public wearing of Islamic face veils, as its senate failed to raise objections against the provision passed last month by the lower chamber of parliament.
The Chamber of Deputies approved the so-called burqa ban law on April 28. The senate had 15 days to interfere with it, but declined to do so, the Belga news agency said, quoting sources from the Belgian Parliament.
Belgian lawmakers had already voted to ban Islamic face veils last year, but the law did not get into the statute books as parliament was dissolved in the wake of a government crisis fueled by a row between the country’s French and Dutch-speaking politicians.
“This time it should go through,” Belga wrote, indicating that the law is set to be enforced ten days after its publication in the country’s official journal.
The measure is supported by all political parties except French- and Dutch-speaking Greens, which either opposed it or abstained in last month’s chamber vote.
The law would punish anyone caught in public places with their face completely or partially covered –thus preventing their identification – with fines between 15 to 20 euros (21 to 35 dollars) and/or up to seven days’ imprisonment.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have criticized it, arguing that it “would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion” of affected women.
Vikram Dodd examines evidence that the police and MI5 are abusing Schedule 7 stop and search powers to try and turn innocent people into informers.
See also “Asian people 42 times more likely to be held under terror law”, Guardian, 24 May 2011
And “Black and Asian people unfairly targeted by anti-terror law”, FOSIS press release, 23 May 2011
FOSIS quotes Lord Ahmed as stating: “Ten years after it was first introduced, Schedule 7 is having an extremely damaging impact on community relations. This government has failed to adequately investigate and regulate Schedule 7 in the way that it has with other stop and search powers such as Section 44. That’s why I think it’s time we had an independent review into the use of Schedule 7.”
The FOSIS and StopWatch briefing paper on Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 can be consulted here.
Boxing star Amir Khan has hit out at US customs for keeping him in a holding room for more than two hours.
Amir flew out to Los Angeles on Saturday to start training for his next fight. But the Bolton boxer was not happy at being held in a holding room and being asked about his relatives. He tweeted:
“They took the £!@%*£ because I’m a Muslim. Kept me in some holding room for over 2hours asking y my uncles with me. They where so arrogant and unprofessional. Didn’t know how to talk to pple, well I’m out now an it can’t get any worse.”
Press TV reports on how French Muslim women are organising in response to the veil ban:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb5o2AHIxzI
Joan Wallach Scott, author of The Politics of the Veil, explains the background to the ban:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY7Xialu_-8
She may be a criminal in the eyes of French law, but here at a London conference on Islamophobia, Kenza Drider was welcomed as a champion of women’s rights.
Last month, as a French citizen, she made a public stand against France’s new law outlawing the wearing of the niqab or face veil. She’s been arrested twice, but has refused on principle to pay the fine.
She was one of many speakers at a conference on the spread of anti-Muslim hatred across Europe. Academics and activists have noted a change in social interaction as fears of abuse and attacks grew.
There have been many instances of violence against Muslims across Europe. One case which highlights the consequences of leaving Islamophobia unchecked is the story of Marwa Sherbini, now known as the hijab martyr. She was killed after being stabbed 18 times by a man who’d called her a terrorist.
Doctor Robert Lambert has been investigating attacks on Muslims for a decade. He says politicians could do far more to combat the problem. But there was also recognition that bridges had been built across groups and communities in the UK, particularly in London, that strengthened resistance to rise of the far right.
And so while there has been progress in terms of recognising Islamophobia, the threat of anti-Muslim hatred remains serious. The feeling here is that the attitudes of European governments must change first before European societies can deal with the problem, and stave off the increasing incidents of violence against Muslims and the growing prospect of isolated communities.
See also “Activists condemn Islamophobia”, Daily Mirror, 21 May 2011
U.S. government tactics in pursuing domestic terrorism cases target and entrap Muslim community members and fail to enhance public safety, according to a report released Wednesday by a human rights center at New York University’s law school.
The government’s use of surveillance, paid informants and invented terrorism plots prompts human rights concerns, according to the report by NYU’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. The authors examined three high-profile cases in New York and New Jersey that they said raised questions about the role of the FBI and New York Police Department in creating the perception of a homegrown terrorism threat.
In the cases, each of which resulted in convictions and lengthy sentences, informants pretending to be Muslims pushed ideas about violent jihad and instigated plots that law enforcement later foiled, the report says. The researchers urged the FBI and NYPD to revise guidelines that govern such investigations.
Los Angeles Times, May 19 2011
See also CHRGJ press release, 18 May 2011
Download the report here
A petition in Canton Ticino could force a referendum on prohibiting women from wearing burqas in public, a first for the country.
A local committee in Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region, said it has collected 11,316 signatures, over a thousand more the required number to launch a referendum. Canton authorities will check the signatures over the next few days, reports say and could then call for a referendum.
According to local newspaper Corriere del Ticino, as well as banning burqas, niqabs and other Islamic headresses, the initiative also aims to ban the use of balaclavas and other headgear that disguise people’s faces. These are sometimes worn by people attending football matches in Switzerland.
If the referendum goes ahead, it will be the first time in Switzerland that citizens have been asked to express an opinion on burqas. A similar ban came into effect in France recently, causing a hot debate on personal and religious freedom in the country and beyond.
In 2009, the Swiss voted to ban the construction of minarets in a country, a decision that has sparked controversy in the Muslim world and in other European countries.
A well-travelled British human rights activist and former Guantanamo Bay detainee said he was barred from boarding a direct flight from London to Toronto Friday because of concerns the aircraft could be diverted to the U.S.
Moazzam Begg was supposed to speak at a Saturday conference on Islamophobia organized by the Canadian lawyer for Omar Khadr, 24, the Toronto-born Guantanamo prisoner who was convicted last fall of war crimes.
Begg said airline agents told him they had been in touch with Canada’s High Commission in London and the issue was one of security. “They said to me the reason why they would not board me and take me to Canada is because, in the unlikely event they were rerouted to America, there could be a security concern,” Begg said in a telephone interview with the Toronto Star.
Khadr’s lawyer, Dennis Edney, said a Canadian foreign affairs official informed him that Begg was denied entry due to a “U.S. policy”.