Top Police Officer Says Muslims Are More Likely to Be Targeted for Searches 03 March 2005 Britain's top police officer said Thursday the country's Muslim population was more likely to be targeted for police searches. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said police "stop and searches," carried out under government anti-terrorism regulations, did not require individual suspicion and it was a reality that Muslim people would be disproportionately targeted.Blair's comments supported remarks by Home Office minister Hazel Blears, who told a parliament committee meeting Tuesday that "the (terrorist) threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam." "I think that is the reality and I think we should recognize that. If a threat is from a particular place then our action is going to be targeted at that area," she said. In the past, the government has repeatedly maintained that the disproportionate number of nonwhite people being stopped and searched was unacceptable. Government figures released last week showed that black and Asian people were far more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by British police. Police "stop and search" powers have long been a sensitive issue in Britain, with members of ethnic minorities complaining that they are stopped more often than white people. Muslim groups have complained that their communities have been victimized since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Blair told British Broadcasting Corp. radio Thursday that he believed there were potentially hundreds of people in Britain plotting to commit terrorist acts, many of whom had returned from camps in Afghanistan. "We do have to accept - and the events around the Gloucester shoe-bomber do show us - that there are people in that (Muslim) community who are, misguidedly and entirely in conflict with the values of Islam, prepared to use violence against the U.K. and therefore we have to do something with this," Blair said. Saajid Badat, 25, of Gloucester, England, who was charged with plotting with shoe-bomber Richard Reid, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to blow up a U.S.-bound aircraft in 2001. "There would be a much greater outcry if we did absolutely nothing and part of London disappeared in smoke," Blair said. Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, accused Blair and the government of hypocrisy. "We are getting double talk from these people (the minister and the commissioner) and it is totally unacceptable," Shadjareh said. "On the one hand they want the Muslim community to help them with the war against terror and on the other they want to promote the politics of fear based on the demonization of the Muslim community," he said. Associated Press http://www.beliefnet.com/story/161/story_16192_1.html Recommend this article to a friend Your name: Your friend's email address: