By IRNA
London : The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has expressed alarm about the alleged bugging by police of Muslim MP Sadiq Khan, who is also a well-respected human rights lawyer and more recently has become a member of the British government.
“The revelations are simply appalling and raise a whole range of vital issues to do with confidentiality and how to hold to account the improper behaviour of senior police officers,” MCB secretary general Abdul Bari said.
“This kind of behaviour cannot but do immense damage to the level of trust between Muslim communities and the police,” Bari warned.
According to the Sunday Times, Khan had his conversations bugged twice in 2005 and 2006 when he went to jail to visit Babar Ahmad, one of his constituents, who is facing extradition to the US on alleged terrorist offences but not on any charges in the UK.
The bugging of MPs was banned in 1966 by the so-called Wilson doctrine, named after the prime minister at the time, who neither MPs nor peers would be bugged by MI5 security services.
MCB said it was looking forward to hearing the outcome of an immediate inquiry ordered by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who also expressed his concern about the allegation.
It said it was also seeking urgent meetings with both Straw and Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, whose office would have likely to have been involved in any authorization of the alleged bugging.
The Muslim News also warned that the alleged bugging of Khan puts the credibility of the British Government at stake in its aim to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the country’s 2 million Muslim community.
“It’s a matter of trust,” the monthly’s editor Ahmed Versi, said.
“The bugging, if proved true, will reinforce fears, especially among youths, that the Government is targeting all Muslims with suspicion,” he warned.
Khan, who became a government whip when Prime Minister Gordon Brown took office last June, also warned on Sunday that the implications were “quite serious” if the allegations of the bugging were true.
Dismay was also express by the family of Babar Ahmed, who has never been charged with any crime even though he was also arrested under Britain’s terror laws back in December 2003 before being released without any charge.
“It does not surprise us that “dirty dealings” like this were being authorized in the prison,” the family said in a statement on Sunday.
“It seems as though they were clutching at straws and desperate to find something to pin on him as they have been unsuccessful in doing so prior to this,” it said.
The parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee has also said it would investigate the allegations as part of its inquiry into Britain becoming a “surveillance society”.