His remarks come as no surprise to Halid Sofi, the chair of the legal affairs committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, who spoke to RNW's Louise Dunne. He sees a disturbing self-fulfilling tendency on the part of the police and the media to regard British Muslims as a potential source of trouble.
"We have been saying it for quite some time now: that the anti-terror measures are being disproportionately targeted against the Muslim community. So, we broadly agree with what Mr Ghaffur has been saying, and in fact we've been saying it for quite some time. It's the disproportionality, especially in stop and search. The figures show a 300 percent increase in stop and search of Asian people. They are mainly from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, who happen to be Muslims."
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Click to listen to the interview with Halid Sofi |
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"The people who were detained under the anti-terrorism legislation - most of them were released without charge - were all Muslims. The people who were detained under the old detention-without-trial [legislation] which was struck down by the House of Lords, were all Muslims. The people who have now been subject to control orders were all Muslims. And there is also a strong perception within the community that the Muslim community is being targeted as a whole, rather than dealing with some fringe elements who may be engaging in criminality."
Radicalisation
Mr Sofi sees this wholesale suspicion on the part of the authorities as a significant factor in the recent radicalisation of the young generation of British Muslims.
"What happens is that when there is anger, and when young Muslims see that they are being targeted and disproportionately treated because of their faith, it makes them angry. They lose faith and confidence in the system. It provides an opportunity for some elements to engage young people in criminal activities. There has been also unhelpful comments by politicians, and the way the whole thing has been portrayed by the media, which has also had an impact on alienation […] which does provide an excellent opportunity for those who want to exploit these sentiments in terms of engaging youth or other Muslims in criminality."
Side effect
If this is an accurate picture, it may be that one of the side effects of the anti-terrorism campaign and the legislation introduced to support it has been to create a larger pool of potential recruits to terrorism than could otherwise have been expected.
"Well, that's what we are saying, because we need to deal with people on the basis of debate, not by criminalizing thought. Some of the anti-terrorism measures are effectively criminalizing and creating speech offences. And that's not the tradition of this country. We should not let our tradition of free speech and rule of law go because we are under pressure now. We can win by being strong and sticking to our basic values, which are tolerance, fairness and the rule of law."
"That's why the Muslim Council of Britain has been demanding and requesting that we have a full public enquiry into 7/7. It will allow us to understand the factors which led four young British Muslims to kill themselves and bomb and maim their fellow countrymen."
Tags: 7/7, Bangladeshi, Britain, community, disproportionate, extremism, Islamophobia, media, Muslim, Pakistani, police, politicians, radicalisation, terrorism, United Kingdom