UK Muslims Live in "Police State"
Islam Will Replace Collapsing Amerikan Empire
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
LONDON � Released after seven days of detention and interrogation about
"trivial matters", one of nine Muslims arrested in Birmingham's last week
high-profile terror raids, launched a blistering attack on British
authorities.
"It's a police state for Muslims," Abu Bakr told the BBC News Online on
Thursday, February 8.
"It's not a police state for anybody else ... These terror laws are designed
specifically for Muslims," complained the man who was released without
charges Wednesday, February 7.
"That's quite an open fact because the people who have been arrested under
terrorism law, the groups for example that have been banned under the
terrorism law, the people that have been affected by terrorism legislation,
have been Muslims," said Abu Bakr.
"We are feeling the brunt of it all. We are the ones who are being locked
up, detained, and then told go back to our lives."
Abu Bakr was among nine people arrested during high-profile anti-terror
raids in Birmingham last Wednesday on charges of planning to kidnap, torture
and behead a British Muslim soldier.
But after a week-long detention, he and another man were released without
charge.
Many British Muslims accuse the police of unfairly targeting their community
in their terror crackdown.
Muslims have been at the eye of the storm since the 2005 grisly London
attacks which killed 56 people, including four Muslim bombers, a crime
vehemently denounced by Muslim community and religious leaders.
Since 2000, British police have arrested over 700 people � mostly Muslims �
under tough anti-terrorism laws but have brought only a handful to court.
The vast majority have been released without charge.
Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police
Force, the country's most senior Muslim officer, had complained that laws
were alienating the sizable Muslim minority and were running the risk of
criminalizing ethnic minorities.
Nightmare
Abu Bakr, who is studying for a PhD in political Islam at the Birmingham
University, said he was "stigmatized" by his detention.
"I am scared for myself, and my family, because I've been picked up, I've
been told to go back home, and one assuming that somebody can just pick up
their life after just such a major incident that occurred," he said angrily.
"This is going to affect me for the rest of my life."
The father-of-two said he became aware of the police forcing their way into
his house at dawn by his wife screaming.
"Then I see that the light has been put on and I hear lots of officers come
up, shouting my name."
The police officer asked Abu Bakr to get on the floor before telling him he
was being arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences.
"At this moment, all I was thinking about was my family."
Farce
Abu Bakr was taken into custody, fingerprinted and questioned for a whole
week before being released without charges.
"I just thought, maybe they're just rounding people up, and they want to
question people with regard to other individuals," he told the Guardian.
"I was questioned for seven days but not once did they put these allegations
about a plot to kidnap and behead a soldier to me," asserted the British
Muslim.
"They were doing things like putting a piece of paper in front of me - a
note, a scribble by one of my children, a jacket, a hat - and asking me
about it," he recalled.
"My solicitor advised me to make no comment so that's what I did. It felt a
bit amateurish like they didn't really know what they were doing.
"I feel angry. Why have we been used in this way? We are pawns in some kind
of bigger game."
British Muslim leaders have lambasted flawed terror arrests, warning that
such unexplained police offensives antagonize the minority.
"Look, I've always been a bit of a cynic. I've always thought there's no
smoke without fire," Abu Bakr told the daily.
"In this case there is no fire at all� I knew my conscience was clear."
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