Yvonne Ridley recently said that Muslims should stop co-operating with the Metropolitan Police. But what benefit would that actually bring? How far would this non-cooperation extend? What if a Mulim witnesses criminal activity? There's too many situations to list where a Muslim might need or have to co-operate with the police.
There's definitely criticism to be made in the way the Forest Green shooting was handled and conducted (and don't forget the execution murder 'unfortunate shooting' of Jean Charles de Menezes.) There's definitely criticism to be aimed at Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair and his namesake, the King President General Caesar Dear Leader Prime Minister (what is a politician doing talking about specific police activies, and before an inquiry into the incident is finished?). There's also criticism to made at the way every raid of this kind is sensationalised by the media, which bears a lot of responsibility in today's world, for a lot of people only know about incidents via their newspaper or early evening news. However, I think we can do without the populist and moralistic Daily Wail rhetoric of Ridley (who used to be a journalist for the Mail and Sunday Express).
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I gather what she was really getting at was the MCB and Muslim Safety Forum types who have regular meetings with the police. She may have a point - it's hard to see what affect they're having. Unfortunately the comments were not framed tightly and we've seen how it's been reported in the media.
Posted by: Osama Saeed | June 11, 2006 at 01:14 PM