Posted on 02/19/2007 11:30:09 PM PST by LibWhacker
Key quote
"Anyone knowingly giving shelter from legal obligations has a clear civic duty to facilitate compliance with the law. If they do not do so, they will have little cause for complaint if police enter their premises." - LORD CARLILE
Story in full POLICE should be more willing to enter mosques or other places of worship when pursuing terrorist suspects, the government's terror-law watchdog urged yesterday.
The recommendation follows the case of an accused terrorist who escaped after police decided not to follow him into a mosque. He remains on the run.
Lord Carlile, the lawyer who acts as independent assessor of terrorism legislation, also had stern words for Muslim faith leaders, insisting that they have a "clear civic duty" to co-operate with the security services.
His report follows high-profile counter-terrorism cases that have led some Muslims to claim the British government is discriminating against them.
In the case which prompted the call, a British Muslim was under a government-imposed control order, restricting his movements, because ministers judged that he posed a threat to national security.
People under such orders are closely monitored by the police, but the 26-year-old man - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - escaped after entering a Manchester mosque last month. He is understood to have absconded while police following him remained outside.
Some reports have suggested that mosque elders refused to allow officers to enter the building and that the man escaped while the two sides negotiated.
Three men were later arrested in connection with the case, but the 26-year-old himself remains at large. Intelligence reports suggested he was planning to travel abroad to undertake terrorist training. Since escaping, he is believed to have fled to Pakistan.
Lord Carlile insisted that the leaders of the Manchester mosque had done nothing wrong. But he said that the case "raises questions about how generally to approach sensitive issues such as presence in a mosque, church or other place of worship".
The watchdog's recommendation is that officers should routinely enter mosques in pursuit of control-order suspects they believe may be attempting to escape. "The straightforward approach would be to make it clear that if 'controlees' are in breach of anything other than minor aspects of conditions, the police will pursue them after allowing them a short time to emerge voluntarily," Lord Carlile wrote in a report to ministers, published yesterday.
The QC insists that police should always be appropriately respectful when entering mosques, but insists that Muslim leaders must not attempt to obstruct officers watching or pursuing suspects.
"Anyone knowingly giving shelter from legal obligations has a clear civic duty to facilitate compliance with the law," Lord Carlile writes, adding: "If they do not do so, they will have little cause for complaint if police enter their premises."
Lord Carlile's report also questioned the entire system of control orders, urging police to do more to build conventional court cases against the controlees.
A spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic party that has accused ministers of discrimination against Muslims, last night said that many British Muslims were "wary" about co-operating with the police.
"After so many plots that were not plots and accusations that have come to nothing, people have a genuine right to be very questioning about any police attempt to enter a mosque", the spokesman said.
The Home Office last night declined to comment but a spokesman said ministers would consider the report carefully.
This creep needs to be deported.
Now.
L
Arrest and prosecute them for aiding and abetting.
That should put an end to this idiocy.
L
They would conserve resources by sitting out in front of mosques. Muslims know this.
Not police: send in Special Forces.
Execute the terrorists who stopped the police. Of course the police were probably unarmed.
Then level the mosque. In the place of the mosque (terror training center) put a pig sty.
Mohammed was a pig.
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