Muslim cops say anti-terror policies fuel `Islamophobia’

LONDON (RNS) A 2,000-member organization of Muslim police officers claims the government’s anti-terrorism policies are an “affront to British values” and are contributing to an upsurge in Islamophobia. The National Association of Muslim Police said in a seven-page statement to a parliamentary committee that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s “Prevent” strategy, aimed at halting the spread […]

LONDON (RNS) A 2,000-member organization of Muslim police officers claims the government’s anti-terrorism policies are an “affront to British values” and are contributing to an upsurge in Islamophobia.

The National Association of Muslim Police said in a seven-page statement to a parliamentary committee that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s “Prevent” strategy, aimed at halting the spread of violent extremism, actually is “stigmatizing” Muslims by targeting “so-called Islamic extremism.”

The British government in recent years has been on a drive to recruit more police from ethnic minorities, including Muslims. The Muslim police body itself was organized three years ago and has been publicly supported by Brown’s ministers.


But the association now claims the Brown administration’s efforts to deal with terrorism are instead inciting “hatred” against entire communities, including heavily Islamic ones.

“It can be argued that there is a connection in the rise of Islamophobia and our ‘Prevent’ program as it feeds on the stereotypes that the media and some right-wing (political) parties promote … (that) all Muslims are evil and non-trustworthy,” it said.

The statement added that “the climate is such that Muslims are subject to daily abuse in a manner that would be ridiculed by Britain, were this to occur anywhere else.”

The British government has insisted the “Prevent” anti-terrorism measures — which cost an about $227 million per year, are a “real success” that have put more than 200 people in prison for terrorist offenses in the past eight years.

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