Sabina Ahmed looks into the Home Secretary’s move to curtail rights in the name of safety and national security
Keeping us safe
The Home Secretary gave a rousing speech to the Conservative conference. We need to, she said, give extra powers to the security services, to keep us safe. We all will say Amen to that; of course we want our security services to do whatever they need to do to protect our safety. Not at any cost though.
As the latest, the futile incarceration of Mozzeum Baig shows.
Baig was detained for the last seven months, after he came back from a fact-finding mission of Syria; he has been a critic of the policy of the British government. He maintains that his trip to Syria was taken with the full knowledge of the MI5, and that he was told that there was no problem with his fact-finding mission.
He has been a very vocal critic of the British policies in the war zones. And then they put him in the jail, and now there are red faces all around. The Crown prosecution service or the police cant find any evidence of his wrong doing, and have to release him without any charges.
While like all law-abiding citizens I respect the lawmakers and the enforcers, am a more than miffed and disappointed at this gaff. There is a big concern about the young people from the Muslim community in this country, going to Syria to fight and being radicalised.
We all are concerned about this and would like to help the security services. Incidents like this don’t exactly build our confidence, nor does it boost our faith in the security service.
Incidents and wrongful arrests like this can easily be categorized as persecution. I accept that the security services cannot explain exactly what they are doing and what are their reasons for arresting someone, but they have to convince the CPS (Crown prosecution Service), before trying someone.
The fact that they failed to do that and the trail has to be aborted is not exactly a sign of competence, and ability to keep us safe. So though I agree in principle that our security services have to be powerful, I don’t think their gaffs will stop the disillusionment, the Muslims are feeling at the moment.
May be Mrs. May would like to take note.
