Immigration and Racism in Britain and USA

Top officer says security laws alienate Muslims

Monday August 7
Reuters

Britain should hold a judicial inquiry into why some Muslims in the country are turning to extremism, the UK's most senior Muslim officer is to say today in a speech to the National Black Police Association. Survivors of the July 7 attacks last year have long demanded a public inquiry but the government has said it would be a distraction for the security services.

Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Force, will also warn that new anti-terrorism laws are alienating Muslims and criminalising ethnic minorities, that they indirectly discriminated against Muslims, and that stop and search powers were being used unfairly against people of Asian appearance. He said it could mean such communities would "retreat inside themselves" at a time when the security services needed their trust and help.

Survey reveals shades of Islam in Britain

They'll have to get past suburban England Steve.

spendius wrote:

They'll have to get past suburban England Steve.

Ah yes those good dependable folk of suburbia. Sensible, hard working, aspirational in a realistic sort of way. The moderate middle. The majority for whom Blair made his pitch...whatever happened to them?

Actually Spendy I dont care if Britain does become an Islamic republic. So long as they put a stop to Jehovah's witnesses.

Top officer says security laws alienate Muslims

Aug 7
Reuters

Britain should hold a judicial inquiry into why some Muslims in the country are turning to extremism, the UK's most senior Muslim officer is to say today in a speech to the National Black Police Association. Survivors of the July 7 attacks last year have long demanded a public inquiry but the government has said it would be a distraction for the security services.

Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Force, will also warn that new anti-terrorism laws are alienating Muslims and criminalising ethnic minorities, that they indirectly discriminated against Muslims, and that stop and search powers were being used unfairly against people of Asian appearance. He said it could mean such communities would "retreat inside themselves" at a time when the security services needed their trust and help.

Call for more ethnic minority police officers

Aug 7
Guardian Unlimited

The recruitment, retention and progression of ethnic minority staff in Britain's police forces is "woeful, piecemeal and pitiful", warns the president of the National Black Police Association.

Keith Jarrett is calling for a change in the law that will allow forces to adopt an affirmative action policy. "The best information about a community will come from the community itself, but this relationship can only happen if there is dialogue and a level of trust between the two parties. But where do you start if there is under-representation?

"Approximately 3.7% of the police force is black and it will take another 30 years for the force to be fully representative. If the Met Police wants to meet its own targets it will have to, until 2009, ensure that 90% of the officers recruited are black."

Mr Jarrett acknowledged that allegations of corruption and racism within the force compounded the problem of recruiting black people as officers: "The police force is still full of racist people. The only thing we have managed to do is make it covert."

Companies face diversity tests for government contracts

August 7, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The government is considering denying multimillion pound contracts to companies that fail to employ enough black and Asian workers.

The Department of Work and Pensions confirmed that three pilot schemes have been approved which will see companies questioned on their workforce diversity before the government decides on the winning bid. Firms could be asked to provide figure showing the numbers of black and Asian employees on their payroll, which would be compared with the proportion of people living in their surrounding area.

"It is something that is being looked at," the spokesman said. "We have got as far as identifying three pilot schemes but it is still at an early stage."

Currently, the employment rate of people from black and minority ethnic communities in England stands at 59.7%, compared to a national employment rate of 74.6%.

Theme park calls off "Muslim Fun Day"

Aug 2
Reuters

Britain's biggest theme park has called off the first "National Muslim Fun Day" because of lack of interest. Alton Towers was to open on September 17 for Muslims - with halal food, a strict dress code and prayer areas. Music, gambling and alcohol were to be banned for the day and theme park rides segregated by sex. The event's organizers had hoped to fill a niche for Muslims who are uncomfortable with mainstream entertainment.

The moderate middle. The majority for whom Blair made his pitch...whatever happened to them?

Most Muslims believe the Americans and Israelis destroyed the WTC

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Top officer says security laws alienate Muslims

Sierra-

The leaders of the three main parties here and their senior colleagues and advisers are almost all suburbanites.

Whatever consensus is reached will be essentially suburban thinking and any court, supreme or not, which tries to block that consensus can be, if necessary, ie they don't know on which side their bread is buttered, abolished. I gather the US doesn't partake in such a luxury. Nor a BOUNDERIES COMMISSION aka Bounder's. I presume the US has a crude form of gerrymandering with its planning policies.

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The moderate middle. The majority for whom Blair made his pitch...whatever happened to them?

Contentment Steve. Test matches, lawns, allotments, car preening, gossipping- you know. It's only the discontented who agitate.

Suburbia must not be sufficiently concerned about the issues. If it does become concerned you will hear about it.

People believe in conspiracies because it provides them with an opportunity to look clever and clued into some secret channel or insight as they have discovered that they are dumb know-nothings in those areas everyone is familiar with.

It provides the chattering classes with something to endlessly chatter about. The hints are provided by media to facilitate one-upmanship and one-upwomanship exhibitions at dinner parties and are competitive within the class based consumer profiles which the range of outlets cater for.

... the best assimilation of Moslem immigrants to Britain involves more of welcoming them to British culture than it does modifying British culture to accomodate them.

Which reminds me that in the ch4 programme referred to, many Muslims believe Diana Princess of Wales was murdered because of her relationship with Dodi Fayed.