Why Muslims in Birmingham feel like a ‘suspect’ community

“The post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ narrative, has revealed a new suspect community. Whether inadvertently or not, measures such as profiling, hard-line policing, stop and search and surveillance all have the potential to stigmatise an entire population, such as Irish people living in Britain during the conflict in Northern Ireland, and now the Muslim community in Britain.”

Imran Awan, deputy director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, and co-editor of the study Extremism, Counter-terrorism and Policing, examines the impact of counter-terrorism legislation and other repressive measures on the Muslim community in Birmingham.

Huffington Post, 9 March 2014