| The Muslims & The Met | | Print | |
| Written by Yvonne Ridley | ||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, 31 January 2007 | ||||||||||||||
There are those who continue to humiliate themselves by giving voice or platform to the Met and it really does beggar belief. I feel very low at the moment ... in total despair at the appeasing stance being adopted by some of our self-important Muslim leaders. Instead of standing up to the Establishment they are scuttling around like Uriah Heep characters without dignity or self respect. Thank God for people like artist Leon Kuhn who manages to take the great and the good and give them a bloody good kick where it hurts ... right in their egoes. As I sit at my desk writing to you this evening I am looking at one of Leon's inspired charicatures of Britain's top policeman Sir Ian Blair. It is cruel, unrelenting and brilliantly funny. No mercy. Replacing Sir Ian's nose is the barrel of a smoking gun with BLIAR! blasting out in a headline underneath the satirical image. It sums up perfectly what many of us think about the head of the Met which overnight became the most notorious police force in western Europe when an "institutionally racist" culture was identified by Sir William Macpherson’s 1999 report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. When I set out in journalism 30 years ago the Metropolitan Force was regarded as the most corrupt and sleaze-ridden in Britain, loathed and despised by every decent copper outside London and adored by villains and gangsters. Now this same force is still plagued with accusations of racism and its growing Islamophobic tendencies are impossible to hide and go all the way up to the top. Just the other day Sir Ian Blair was said to be furious when a young, female Muslim recruit refused to shake hands with the Met chief on religious grounds. Why the outrage? If he'd bothered to read the cultural diversity handbook issued to his junior officers and grassroots police, he would have known it was improper for a stranger to go around shaking Muslim women's hands. The Met says it is desperate to bring in Muslim recruits and then when a female Muslim acts like erm, a female Muslim, there's all hell to pay. If anyone should be disciplined it is Sir Ian for not practising what the official police handbook advises. And of course this is not a one off, is it? I mean if this is how he treats a new recruit, do the more senior Muslim coppers in the ranks of the Met fare any better. It would seem not! His three most senior Muslim officers are planning to rain on Sir Ian's parade by revealing what they claim is persistent discrimination in the highest echelons of the force. Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, Britain’s leading Muslim policeman, is understood to be preparing to retire early after being repeatedly passed over for promotion. He is said to be looking for alternative employment. Commander Shabir Hussain, a former terrorism specialist at the high-security Paddington Green police station, has filed three discrimination claims and is set to leave within months. And Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, head of policing in the London borough of Hounslow, will publish a book next month that will contain criticism of the Met’s attitudes to minorities, particularly Muslims. Dizaei is yet another recently passed over for the job of winning over the "hearts and minds" of the Muslim community for the police in favour of what the trio say is a less-qualified white officer. It is quite obvious the Islamic trio believe that Sir Ian is personally responsible for an anti-Muslim culture developing within the force which is hindering the police’s ability to tackle terrorism. Last year the number of claims against the Met alleging religious or racial discrimination doubled. Senior officers are now bracing themselves for protests from Muslim officers following the actions by Ghaffur, Hussain and Dizaei. In some ways I feel sorry for the likes of Ghaffur and Dizaei who have been shamelessly exploited by the Met by being regularly used to reach out to the Muslim community. But you know what ... if you kiss the hand that slaps you what do you expect? Surely they never imagined that they would be accepted in the ranks of the Met? Ghaffur, 51, became deputy chief constable of Lancashire before moving to London in 1999. He became one of Blair’s four assistant commissioners — equivalent to chief constable in other forces — and was charged with sensitive operations. Hussain, a commander, is a rank beneath Ghaffur and has been passed over for promotion on five occasions. He is now in charge of traffic and transport policing ... hmm, very challenging, I'm sure. Dizaei, who could never be described as a "thick copper" (he has a doctorate in law and is legal adviser to the Black Police Association) is perhaps the most controversial. He was suspended in 2001 as part of an internal police investigation into his conduct. However, after a four-year probe costing an estimated £7m he was acquitted of wrongdoing and reinstated. Dizaei’s book, Not One of Us, will be published on February 22 and I bet it is a page turner. I wonder if he will reveal why he believes he is the only one of the 10 officers in his class to have been overlooked for promotion. I wonder if he will really say why he thought he would ever be treated with respect in such an institutionally rotten and racist organisation like the Met. Perhaps now Muslim leaders will wake up to the rancid qualities of the Met and see the force for what it is ... Islamophobic to the core from the top downwards. There are those who continue to humiliate themselves by giving voice or platform to the Met and it really does beggar belief. Just the other week Sir Ian was invited to a conference on Islamophobia (I know, you couldn't make it up), and as he swept onto the stage he dusted down an old speech which he has used so many times beofre it must be growing whiskers. After he rounded up to ringing applause he then about turned and dashed off without bothering to speak to those wide-eyed individuals who invited him in the first place. Their approving looks of landing the Met's top dog for their conference quickly turned into hurt and puzzled expressions. Oh pull-ease wake up! Why of why do Muslim leaders continue to humiliate themselves and us, by proxy. Let me ask you this: If the Met is going to treat its top three Muslim coppers in such a disgusting way, why on earth do you think they will treat you any better? Will you also get up off your knees and get some self respect.  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