Muslim Police Officer

[anotheoldgit]

Should the Muslim police officers be allowed to pick what duties he carries out?

I refer to the Muslim police officer who ask to be removed from policing the Israeli Embassy.

[Catso]

Why would the Israeli embassy object? I presume they thought the Met would just assign whatever suitably qualified officer they wanted. I also hope that the Met would have told them where to go if they had said 'we don't him, he's Muslim'. (Wouldn't the embassy also have been open to prosecution, under anti-racist laws, had they done so?)

Sensitivity is nothing to do with it; it's a case of being racist or not. Wouldn't the officer making the assignments have been blatently racist if he made a point of not assigning Muslims (or even non-Jews) do guard the Israeli embassy?

I hope (though I don't know) that lots and lots of black officers were assigned to the SA embassy. Just to annmoy the SAs.

[sp1814]

Hang on a second...I've just noticed something weird about this story...

With all the negative news regarding Muslims in this country, we suddenly get a story about a Muslim police officer.

And is it a positive story?

Nope.

Let's just think about this for a minute.

He's a Muslim police officer...he's doing an incredibly hard job and he's a Muslim, which I imagine doesn't actually endear him to some of his own community.

If I were a moderate Muslim right now, I'd be thinking "You're d*amned if you do, you're d*mned if you don't".

[noxlumos]

Yeah but the problem is SP, it's not a positive story. It's about a policeman who doesn't want to do his job like other policemen, that's why it's negative. I just wish for one day that some tabloid would mooch about the country and talk to Muslims in coffee bars having a chat with their christian/ Jewish friends, go to large factories where the cultural and religious mix is diverse and everyone gets on and write about that. Instead they manage to find probably the only copper that feels he's a special case and guess what,he hapens to be Muslim, they must have thought it was Christmas come early.

[jake-the-peg]

This isn't just a Muslim officer - he has Lebanese family.

Does anybody really think the Israeli embasy staff would feel all that cosy with having a British/Lebanese policeman outside their front door right now?

I still find it hard to believe that the diplomatic protection squad were so "colour blind" that they failed to notice this little fact

[smudge]

Ditto Nox!

[Pippa68]

Nox speaks wise words as usual :o)

Maybe the police officer was assigned this job as a test? at the end of the day they could have picked anyone..anyone who may or may not have disagreed with the situation. They chose him. Maybe they were setting a test, maybe they were just treating this guy the same as anyone else ~ in any case, he has chosen his profession. Maybe he shouldn't be a Police Officer.

[Catso]

Jake, perhaps the diplomatic protection squad were being "colour blind" to avoid being labelled as racist.

And actually, yes, I do think the Israelis would be comfortable with it, as I think they'd see him as a Britsih policeman and trust him to do his job properly.

[noxlumos]

So hang on then Jake, this officer, is he a British subject or not? Because if he is, then your argument that "he's got Lebanses family" just shoots in the foot the argument I usually use to the "hang em high, send em home" brigade that want to get rid of immigrants. We say "Ah yes, but he IS Bristish", which is true and valid as far as I am concerned, now are you having it that he may be British but he has Lebanese family , therefore he's unfit to do his job properly? Because if you are then that's an ugly can of worms and one which will blow up in the immigrant poulation's face if it's used.
It's rather like my brother becoming a member of the PCNI, and then refusing to Police the streets according to British law because I personally don't recognise it. The whole thing is absurd, and if it's allowed to prevail will just cause further division.
Now a positive story would have been a Muslim officer protecting the Israeli embassy, or a Jewish Officer protecting a Mosque, sadly no-one seems to get the gist of that and if we don't hurry up soon, it's all going to get a whole lot worse.

[jake-the-peg]

Of course he's a British subject but are we being led to believe this is an accident?

How many Lebanese policemen do you bump into on a daily basis?

I just think there's more to this than meets the eye.

[sp1814]

Jake-The-Peg,

Now, I'm confused...are you saying that he was delib...

You know what? I'm really confused. I'm not even sure how to phrase this, but here goes..are you saying that he was set up???

[juddlinski]

Heh, this is a great board for Muslim-bashing isn't it? Why don't you all form a club?

I love the way the questioner twists the issue into the possibility of Muslim police officers picking and choosing their duties - genius!

Keep up the good work you lot.

[sabs]

from reading your previous posts, you seem to have an obvious dislike of Muslims anotheoldgit.

[jake-the-peg]

Think about this for a moment

Do you really believe that the Metropolitan police is so overflowing with officers of Arabic descent that they should just happen to pick one to stand outside the Israeli embassy?

Give me a break!

It would almost make you think that somebody was trying to provoke a diplomatic incident.

Or, given that the police force has not exactly covered itself in glory with regards to racial sensitivity over the years that somebody thought it would be funny to post him there.

Whatever the truth of the matter you can't really think that posting was just an accident of circumstance can you?

[juddlinski]

The second option sounds likely.

[noxlumos]

Ok , i'm not great lover of either the British govt or the Met tbh, and i'm quite open to the "set up" idea, but that doesn't take away this bloke's personal choice not to act as if he has a right to abdicate his working responsibility. If he'd not made a fuss, then he'd have beaten them at their own game, as it is, it's just given yet more people an excuse to marginalise and pick on Muslims, and I stand by what I said, if we all took our own political, social and cultural pet bias' and allowed them to affect us, then we'd be in a state of chaos.This has played right into the hands of the right wingers.

[juddlinski]

How exactly is he 'abdicating his work responsibility' by asking to be removed from duties that he objects to?

And I would guess that his objection runs to more than a 'pet bias' on his part.

[noxlumos]

Because by definition if you are a policeman you will have to carry out duties that you will find unpalettable. ALL policemen. how many coppers that policed the marches in London do you actually think WANTED us to go to war with Iraq? I bet there were a fair few that didn't, but how many said "We're not doing that"? If you have a position of civil responsibility, you must act without prejeudice and within the letter of the law, showing wherever possible a good example. I was 100% AGAINST the Israeli behaviour towards Lebanon, however, this copper deciding he doesn't want to protect the Israeli embassy even though that's his job is just propagating the hate. If he has been threatened by whoever, then they should be dealt with, but at no point should he have been allowed to do this, it just sends out the wrong message.

[Supernick]

Lets not forget that this has been deemed serious enough to have an official enquiry attached to it. What can we learn from this? Answer - that even the chief of police would not agree with officers being able to 'pick and choose' which duties to perform. It should be perfectly obvious that if you're a policeman you do your duty regardless of your personal political leanings. Not many people would argue against that, including Ian Blair, so you would be up in arms over nothing.
When the safety of your family is being brought into the equation though, that is when it becomes more complicated. Hence the enquiry again.

[sp1814]

sabs...that is an outrageous slur against anotheoldgit.

He doesn't just dislike Muslims...he's also none too partial to black people too:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question30 0586.html

Only puling your leg anotheoldgit!


(Except of course, I'm not).

[Dassie]

Does anybody remember the good old days in Britain before we had all these types of problems? Now let me just think for a minute what happened to change all this......................yes you guessed it !!! And today we have Jack Straw speaking a bit of sense and another uproar.