The Labour MP Sadiq Khan welcomed a government inquiry yesterday into alleg-ations that Scotland Yard had bugged conversations between him and a constituent acccused of terrorist offences. Khan said: “Constituents should have the confidence to speak to their MP in confidence, with candour so they can be helped with their case. My phone has rung off the hook with constituents who are concerned and annoyed.”
The Muslim Council of Britain said it wanted urgent meetings with the government over the “appalling” allegations which could damage confidence in the police: “Today’s 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. This kind of behaviour cannot but do immense damage to the level of trust between Muslim communities and the police.”
See also MCB press release, 3 February 2008
Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad secretly bugged a high-profile Labour Muslim MP during private meetings with one of his constituents. Sadiq Khan, now a government whip, was recorded by an electronic listening device hidden in a table during visits to the constituent in prison.
David Cameron was under fire yesterday after it emerged that the radical Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi had been admitted into the UK when the Tory leader was working in the Home Office.
The Leader of the Opposition has urged the Prime Minister to stop controversial Islamic theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi from entering the country. Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, David Cameron said that he was a “hate preacher” and should be denied entry.
Conservative leader David Cameron has called for a ban on “preachers of hate” entering the United Kingdom. Mr Cameron accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of dithering over the case of Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, following press reports that he is to be granted permission to come to London for medical treatment.
Public Lecture
MIAMI – Jose Padilla, the Brooklyn-born convert to Islam who was once accused by the government of plotting to detonate a “dirty bomb” in the United States, was sentenced on Tuesday to 17 years and four months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to help Islamic jihadist fighters abroad.