'Muslims not helping cops'
2005-08-11 07:57
London - Muslims in Britain are not helping police weed out radical preachers promoting militancy and youngsters vulnerable to their extremism, Britain's top Muslim police officer told a newspaper.
Tarique Ghaffur, assistant commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, told Thursday's Financial Times it could take "several years" for Muslim communities to participate in wider British society.
Ghaffur is responsible for community policing in the British capital, which was hit by four suicide bombers on July 7 who killed 52 innocent people, along with themselves, on the transport network.
The Met Police cover greater London and double as Britain's lead anti-terrorist force.
Following the July 7 blasts, Met commissioner Ian Blair called on Muslims in Britain to "find ways of identifying those preachers of hate and who they're talking to."
Ghaffur told the FT: "It isn't happening".
He said communities were unaware how to help the police, were in retreat from the "hostile" public reaction to the bombings and were unable to distinguish "the tipping point between right and wrong where hate becomes a criminal offence."
Ghaffur told the business daily he wanted mosques to become the focal point of local communities, but he was not averse to clamping down on "back-street mosques" if they proved to be centres of fomenting subversion.
He said mosques were magnets for communities in London with no ties to British society.
"The Somali community, frankly they have got no established roots, no sense of citizenship, no active youth diversion," he said.
Yasin Hassan Omar, suspected of attempting to blow up a subway train in the failed July 21 repeat attack on London, was Somali-born.
Ghaffur said gaining understanding between the police and Muslim communities could take years.
"The reason is I don't think we?ve ever really reached out to these communities, to engage them previously. They are retreating into themselves in the face of hysterical and hostile public reaction, which has stigmatised communities.
"Many Muslims are proud to be British but many Muslims don't know how to deal with perceptions and procedures."