One of the nine men arrested under anti-terror laws over a much-hyped plot to behead British soldiers branded Britain a “police state for Muslims” on Thursday.

Abu Bakr, who was among eight suspects who were seized from their homes in a series of aggressive dawn raids in Birmingham last Wednesday, asserted that the aim of the operation had been to distract attention from the cash-for-honours inquiry, in which Prime Minister Tony Blair and new Labour are accused of offering honours to fat cats who fork out funds to the cash-strapped party.

Mr Bakr, who is one of two men who have since been released without charge, said: “I personally believe it was to do with the incident around Tony Blair.

“With Lord Levy being arrested and Tony Blair being questioned, to take attention away from that, this big plot was leaked to the press.”

Gory details of the alleged “Iraq-style” plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier were leaked to a small group of reporters in anonymous briefings that have since been attributed to “Whitehall sources.”

Civil rights group Liberty is concerned that so-called Whitehall briefings about the operation may have compromised “the best efforts of the local police service to brief the public in a timely, orderly, lawful and open manner.”

Liberty has asked Home Secretary John Reid whether special advisers may have briefed certain journalists off the record, thereby prejudicing fair trials.

It is also concerned that, when the same personnel brief journalists on proposals to, for example, bring fundamental changes to the law to extend pre-charge detention in the same week or same breath, party politics may be trumping public safety considerations.

Mr Bakr’s lawyer Gareth Peirce has sent a letter asking West Midlands Police to find out “who made these false, malicious claims” and she reported that she was “awaiting a response with interest.”

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Peace campaigners reiterated calls for a reverse of Britain’s warmongering foreign policy on Wednesday after ministers boasted about a new £5 million initiative to fight so-called Muslim extremism.

Ministers unveiled plans to allocate £5 million to local authorities in the fight against extremism as part of what Prime Minister Tony Blair has called a “radical and head-on” confrontation. Despite failures in Iraq and calls for him to step down, Mr Blair stubbornly declared his determination on Tuesday to “stand up” to Islamist extremism at home and abroad.

But Muslim Parliament of Great Britain deputy leader Jaffer Clarke dismissed the initiative as “unfocused, unworkable” and far from what the Muslim community needs, which is an end to wars in the Middle East and a new direction in foreign policy.

A Respect coalition spokesman called the move “mere window dressing, given that the government is demonising Muslims daily.” He said that, if ministers were sincere about “fighting Muslim extremism,” they should “reverse the foreign policy alliance with US President George W Bush.”

Morning Star, 8 February 2007

See also the Guardian which reports that “there is concern in the Muslim community that the government is marginalising groups which represent large parts of the community, such as the Muslim Council of Britain. Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said it was puzzled by some of the remedies for extremism presented by the government: ‘The overwhelming majority of Muslim organisations are the solution, not the problem’.”

Guardian, 8 February 2007

A man freed after he was arrested over an alleged plot to kidnap a UK Muslim soldier has criticised the police investigation.

Abu Bakr, who works in the Maktabah bookshop, targeted in anti-terror raids in Birmingham, also told BBC News the UK was “a police state for Muslims”. Mr Bakr, one of nine men arrested in raids, was released without charge along with another man.

Mr Bakr, who is studying for a PhD in Political Islam at the city’s university, said he became aware of the police forcing their way into his house early last Wednesday morning by his wife screaming. Asked how he felt about his arrest, he said: “It’s a police state for Muslims. It’s not a police state for everybody else because these terror laws are designed specifically for Muslims and that’s quite an open fact,” he added.

He had been released by police on Wednesday morning and told to “go back to things how they were”, he added. “But they don’t realise that, after seven days of virtual torture for my family, it’s going to be hard to readjust,” he added. “This is going to affect me for the rest of my life.” Mr Bakr said his parents had told him they had aged 10 years while he had been in custody.

He also criticised what he called “amateur-type interrogation” by the police who, he said, had subjected him to “random questioning” about notes written on pieces of paper by his young children.

BBC News, 8 February 2007

Two of the nine terror suspects arrested in last week’s Birmingham raids have been released without charge, their solicitor said today.

In a statement after their release from Coventry’s Chace Avenue police station in the early hours of today, the men said there had been no mention to them by police of a plot to kidnap or behead any soldier.

Their solicitor Gareth Peirce said: “They have left the police station without any better understanding of why they were there than when they first arrived seven days ago. Not a word was ever mentioned to either of them about a plot to kidnap or the grisly suggestion of a beheading or even of a soldier at all.

“Both have been met with a consistent refusal over seven days for any explanation for their arrest. They are convinced that others in the police station must be as innocent as they and urge that they also be swiftly released.”

Times, 7 February 2007

See also Liberty’s criticism of government briefings to the media: BBC News, 6 February 2007

Police are holding a review of much-criticised “stop and search” powers over concerns the tactic used to target possible terrorists was causing more harm than good by alienating the Muslim community.

Senior officers are warming to “new thinking” about the powers which would see people only stopped on the basis of prior intelligence and not their appearance, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

“I think we need to move from the concept of stopping on appearance and ethnicity,” Richard Gargini, ACPO’s national coordinator for community engagement, told Reuters at a conference to discuss Islamophobia. “I sense an atmosphere among police leaders that it’s time to reflect upon where we go with stop and search. Is it having an adverse impact on police and community relations?”

Under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, officers have the power to stop and search people in an area seen as being at risk from terrorism even if they are not suspected of any breach of the law.

Many Muslim groups have argued the powers have been abused by police, particularly after the bomb attacks on July 7, 2005 when four British Islamists killed 52 people on London’s transport system.

Figures show that use of the power against those of Asian appearance has rocketed since the September 11, 2001 attacks, and Muslim community leaders have warned it has helped alienate Britain’s Muslims, so helping the cause of extremists. “We know the levels of trust and confidence that the community has in the police has gone down,” Azad Ali, chairman of the Muslim Safety Forum, which advises police on Islamic issues, told Reuters.

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