Great Britain: Muslim police officer excused Israel guard duty (Embassy duty excuse labeled P.C.)

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | October 5, 2006 | John Steele

[Stoat]

Muslim police officer excused Israel guard duty

By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
 

(Filed: 05/10/2006)

 

 

• Video: Embassy calls row a 'grave problem'

  Scotland Yard said today that a decision to excuse a Muslim police protection officer from duties guarding the Israeli embassy during the Lebanon conflict in August was not taken for “politically correct” reasons but because the armed constable expressed concerns about the safety of his relatives in Lebanon.

  	The Israeli embassy is one of the best protected buildings in London

  A report in The Sun newspaper alleged that that senior officers within the Metropolitan Police Diplomatic Protection Group gave Pc Alexander Omar Basha a special dispensation after he raised “moral” concerns because of Isaeli bombings in Lebanon.

  This claim unleashed a fierce debate about the duties of a police officer. But representatives of the Muslim Police Association denied the decision was based on moral concerns, suggesting it was a “welfare issue.”

  The Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner, Paul Stephenson, appeared to support this assertion.

  In a statement, he said: “Impartial policing of all communities is fundamental to policing the UK. This is non negotiable. Every day Met officers put their duties above their political, religious or ideological views. The Met has a long history of policing difficult demonstrations, marches and events, no matter what the personal view of the officers involved might be.

  “Upon joining the police service, officers swear an oath of attestation, which says that they serve 'without fear or favour'. If on this or any other occasion that principle has been broken it would be wholly improper.”

  However, he added, “at the height of the Israeli/Lebanon conflict in August this year, the officer made his managers aware of his personal concerns which included that he had Lebanese family members.

  “Whilst the Israeli Embassy is not his normal posting, in view of the possibility that he could be deployed there, a risk assessment was undertaken, which is normal practice.

  "It was as a result of this risk assessment - and not because of the officer's personal views, whatever they might have been - that the decisions was taken temporarily not to deploy him to the Embassy

  “This is not about political correctness. I want to make it clear that this decision was taken on the basis of risk and safety.”

  In an interview on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, Supt Dal Babu, chairman of the Association of Muslim Police, said: “What we need to do is just really put this entire issue in perspective. This is about the welfare of an individual and not about a moral issue. I think we are going down a very, very slippery road if we start having postings based on individual officers’ conscience.”

  In a separate BBC radio interview, Supt Babu added: “This should have remained a private matter, a matter about welfare issues for an officer who has got Christian and Muslim relatives in Lebanon.”

[Stoat]

Original Sun article referenced in this article:

The Sun Online - News Fury at 'moral grounds' cop out

 

 EXCLUSIVE 

Fury at 'moral grounds' cop out

 

 
Target ... Israeli Embassy where cop refused to serve. Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, inset, has ordered an inquiry
Right picture: REUTERS

 

› 
 

By MIKE SULLIVAN
Crime Editor
October 05, 2006

 
THE decision to excuse a Muslim cop from guarding the Israeli Embassy was last night branded “the beginning of the end for British policing”.

 

PC Alexander Omar Basha told chiefs he was unable to carry out duties at the London embassy — a top terror target — due to moral grounds after Israeli bombings in Lebanon.

Top brass granted his request last week, but Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair last night ordered an immediate inquiry after our story broke. He said: “Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report.”

Critics slammed the decision. Ex-Met Flying Squad commander John O’Connor said: “This is the beginning of the end for British policing.

“If they can allow this, surely they’ll have to accept a Jewish officer not wanting to work at an Islamic national embassy? Will Catholic cops be let off working at Protestant churches? Where will it end?

“This decision is going to allow officers to act in a discriminating and racist way.”

Mr O’Connor added: “When you join the police, you do so to provide a service to the public. If you cannot perform those duties, you leave.

“The Metropolitan Police are setting a precedent they will come to bitterly regret. Top brass granted his wish as they were probably frightened of being accused of racism. But what they’ve done is an insult to the Jewish community.”

Another angry policeman said: “This decision beggars belief. It goes against everything the police should stand for — providing a service to the public no matter who they are.”

PC Basha, attached to the Met’s Diplomatic Protection Group, asked for special dispensation not to work at the embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens, Central London. The officer, in his late 20s, has taken part in recent anti-war protests.

The Israeli Embassy was attacked in 1994 by Palestinian fanatics with a 50lbs car bomb, injuring 19 and causing millions of pounds’ damage.

But one senior source said: “PC Basha objected to the posting on moral grounds — because of the Israeli bombing of Lebanon and the resulting civilian casualties of fellow Muslims.”

Superintendent Dal Babu, chairman of the Association of Muslim Police said he had spoken to the officer concerned.

He said: “What we need to do is just really put this entire issue in perspective. This is about the welfare of an individual and not about a moral issue.

"I think we are going down a very, very slippery road if we start having postings based on individual officers’ conscience.

“As police officers we have to deal with some very, very difficult situations and we need to be objective and make sure that we police all members of the community fairly. We can’t pick and choose.”

• FOLLOWING today's revelations in the Sun newspaper, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair  called for an urgent review of the decision.

  He said: “Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances.”

• THE Israeli embassy said: “The Embassy of Israel expresses its full confidence in the ability of the Metropolitan Police Force to provide the Embassy with maximum security, as well as its ability to deal with this sort of grave problem."
• ANOTHER Muslim removed from the DPG after his security clearance was rejected is trying to sue the Met. Vetting revealed PC Amjad Farooq had a close acquaintance with alleged links to an extremist Islamic group.
   

 

[Aetius]

I'm thinking that the Israeli embassy is probably happy about this.

[Bahbah]

So it's okay for a muslim British policeman to refuse to guard the Israeli Embassy on the grounds that his "religion" compels him to hate Jews???? If that's acceptable, well, I don't know what to say. It's unspeakable.

[OpusatFR]

Very clever. The Muslims are creating a separate set of standards whereby they live according to theirs even as they live in a non-Muslim country.

It is happening in the US too.

In a sense, the Muslims are imposing their beliefs on everyone else since they demand that one recognizes the special treatment reserved for them in deference to their religion.

[dennisw]

LOL I doubt his family in Lebanon know or care what his UK duties are/ I doubt the Leb "militants" would go after them for his policing duties.


HEY EVERYONE COUSIN ABDUL IS GUARDING THE ISRAELI EMBASSY
.... yawnnnnnn

[dennisw]

Muzz are always needing special treatment. When do you see Chinese and Vietnamese getting special treatment. I do admit the Hispanic ethnic hustlers here are always demanding special treatment for their people. Such as don't deport illegal aliens convicted of DWI

[mass55th]

"So it's okay for a muslim British policeman to refuse to guard the Israeli Embassy on the grounds that his "religion" compels him to hate Jews????"

He needs to be reminded he wasn't hired to be a Muslim, he was hired to be a police officer. Being Muslim isn't part of the paycheck. He needs to be fired.

[Stoat]

I'm thinking that the Israeli embassy is probably happy about this.

Do you think that they're happy because there isn't a Muzzie with a legal, high-quality machine gun standing outside their door or they are happy because it illustrates some of the concerted biases and very real antagonism against them?

Regardless of the rationale of the Police involved, it does bring some of the concerns of Israel to the public's attention which is always good.

[proxy_user]

Didn't refuse, asked for transfer.

It suited him, and it did not displease the Israelis.

[Stoat]

So it's okay for a muslim British policeman to refuse to guard the Israeli Embassy on the grounds that his "religion" compels him to hate Jews???? If that's acceptable, well, I don't know what to say. It's unspeakable.

Agreed.  This is further illustration that we are not engaged in a war against "Islamic extremists", but with Islam.  Their religion permeates every aspect of their being and prevents them from doing their jobs and interacting with others in any manner except as a Muslim, which to them comes before everything else, and they require all others to bow down to their religion, otherwise they cannot coexist.  "Extremists" as opposed to "Moderates" is only a matter of slight degree, a mere shading and parsing of words.

.

[Stoat]

Very clever. The Muslims are creating a separate set of standards whereby they live according to theirs even as they live in a non-Muslim country.

It is happening in the US too.

In a sense, the Muslims are imposing their beliefs on everyone else since they demand that one recognizes the special treatment reserved for them in deference to their religion.

Agreed.  They are waging their war on the West not only on the battlefield, but on the streets and within the Governments of all Western nations.   They are taking advantage of our kindness and our desire to accommodate everyone and using it against us to destroy us all.

[Stoat]

LOL I doubt his family in Lebanon know or care what his UK duties are/ I doubt the Leb "militants" would go after them for his policing duties.


HEY EVERYONE COUSIN ABDUL IS GUARDING THE ISRAELI EMBASSY
.... yawnnnnnn

Yes, agreed.  The given excuse is ludicrous.

[Stoat]

Also see this FR thread:

Met chief orders inquiry into Muslim PC embassy row

 

[fso301]

The mohammedan was recently married by a radical cleric.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1714634/posts

[Stoat]

Thank you for the ping! This guy should have been fired long ago. The fact that he wasn't is an indication of how much of a stranglehold the muzzies have on our British Friends...everyone is afraid of saying or doing anything that might upset them, it seems.
Imagine if a Christian or Jewish police officer (on either side of the pond) had been acquianted with a radical, violent sect of his/her religion and had been married by a radical sect leader...he would be out of a job in a heartbeat I'd guess. But because it's the Muzzies, nobody wants to say or do anything.

[Stoat]

More on this:

The Sun Online - News Cops can't choose who to serve

 

 EXCLUSIVE 

 

Cops can't choose who to serve

 

 
Standing guard ... cops at Israeli Embassy

 

By ANTHONY FRANCE and MIKE SULLIVAN
Sun Crime Team
OCTOBER 06, 2006
 
BRITAIN’S first black cop last night blasted the decision to excuse a Muslim gun officer from guarding the Israeli Embassy — and said: “The police cannot choose who they’ll serve.”

 

Former Met Police Detective Sergeant Norwell Roberts said: “I had to guard the South African Embassy at the height of apartheid.

“The first day I went on duty there four black men had been hanged. But there was never any question of me not doing the job outside the South African or Rhodesian embassies in London.”

Norwell branded as “madness” the Met’s decision to relieve PC Alexander Omar Basha of duties at the mission on moral grounds following bombings in Lebanon — as The Sun revealed yesterday.

He went on: “If this officer is unable to do the job he is paid for he should be sacked — and so should the senior officers who allowed him not to do it.

“At no time did I ever question why I should be standing outside the South African Embassy — even though it was uncomfortable. I’d never have imagined saying to my sergeant, ‘I don’t feel like it today’. It would have been unthinkable.

 

Blast ... Norwell Roberts
 

 

“On the day they hung the four Africans, there was a huge demo. But I stood there with my colleagues and did my job.”

Norwell joined the Met in 1967 and suffered chronic abuse from racists — including having BANANAS hurled at him.

But he shrugged it off and went on to win admirers throughout the police and public, completing 30 years’ service. Now 61, he said of PC Basha: “This man is out of order and ought to seek a career change.

“This decision is just going to open the floodgates to others. Are Jewish officers going to decide not to work the Sabbath?

“I’m annoyed at him and the senior officers who relieved him of his post. They should have told him ‘No’ and that would have been the end of it.” Proud Norwell, the first black officer to get the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service, added: “Senior officers should sit this man down and remind him that he is a police officer and he swore an oath to serve the public — wherever he was posted. He cannot be allowed to pick and choose. That’s wrong.

 

Shock ... Sun yesterday

“When you are a police officer you serve the whole community — regardless of race or religion. I feel very angry about this. It’s not what policing should be about.”

The Met yesterday claimed PC Basha was excused duties at the Embassy, a top terror target, because it was unsafe for him and NOT because he had objected.

Deputy commissioner Paul Stephenson insisted: “This is not about political correctness.”

He admitted PC Basha had raised “concern” with his managers in the Diplomatic Protection Group about the Lebanon crisis, and said a risk assessment of the cop’s duties was then carried out.

He went on: “It was as a result of this risk assessment, not the officer’s personal views, that the decision was taken temporarily not to deploy him.”

But an earlier Met statement admitted cops could be taken off duties for personal reasons.

Commissioner Sir Ian Blair yesterday ordered an urgent review into why PC Basha was taken off duties at the London site.

The Met’s governing Metropolitan Police Authority demanded a report on the issue as it could “undermine confidence in policing”.

It said in a statement: “Officers often have to undertake duties where the subject may be in conflict with their personal beliefs.

“It would be unacceptable for any officer to expect to choose which duties they’re assigned to.”

PC Basha comes from a Syrian background but has a Lebanese wife. Yesterday he was asked to go on temporary leave by bosses.

MPA member Damian Hockney poured scorn on the Met’s claims the officer may have been at risk.

He said: “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s just an excuse to cover up this extraordinary decision.”

Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind said senior officers had made a “very serious error of judgment”.

And Dr Muhammad Abdul-Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “Anyone who joins the police force has a responsibility to discharge their given duties fairly.

“Guarding a foreign embassy in no way implies acceptance of that country’s policy or actions.”

But Ihtisham Hibatullah, of the British Muslim Initiative, said: “Given his family connections in Lebanon, he had a moral obligation to say what he firmly believed, that he could not serve.”

Blaze hero: Get on with it   SANDY Porter, a former Met policeman and uncle of The Sun’s Deputy Political Editor Andrew Porter, writes: "When I read about the policeman who refused to stand outside the Israeli Embassy I was astonished. I was outside the embassy in February 1969 when there was a demo against the Six Day War. "An Israeli flag was burned and a petrol can was rolled through it towards us. I was alight, so were six other officers.   Terror ... PC Porter ablaze in 1969 demo     "My hands and legs were singed. But there was never any question of saying you didn’t fancy a particular job. Never. "You’d have been told to get on with it. It was simple — you just did your job and your morals couldn’t come into it. "Many coppers have not agreed with everything they had to do. But they had no choice. "Political correctness has now gone berserk. You can’t allow people to pick and choose or the system falls apart. You sign up knowing that you’re there to protect EVERYONE."

[monkeyshine]

This is a poorly written article. I presume what they meant to say was that this guy feared that Muslims/Hezbullah/Lebanese may have harmed his family in Lebanon if they found out he was guarding the Israeli embassy.

But they couldn't say it exactly like that because that would be politically incorrect, to suggest that Muslims might kill innocent people because of what some distant relative did for work. So instead they issue these garbled phrases about "risk assessment" without actually saying who was at risk and why they might be at risk.

[Aetius]

Probably both, but I was thinking along the lines of the first reason you give.