Friday, October 17, 2008

Muslims stage protest over being questioned at airports

A protest has been staged outside Strathclyde Police headquarters over alleged "harassment" of Muslim travellers at Glasgow Airport.

About 60 demonstrators claimed that Pakistani and Afghan passengers had been "interrogated" for up to three hours by officers from Special Branch.

They accused police of operating "discriminatory policies".

Strathclyde Police said it welcomed dialogue over the implementation of terrorism legislation.

President of the Scottish Afghan Society, Mohammad Asif, said Strathclyde Police had a duty to treat Muslim passengers like "human beings".

"Muslim community members have been singled out for questioning for no apparent reason other than being Afghan or Pakistani," he said.

"This treatment is unacceptable in a democracy and we are fed up with the discriminatory policies of Strathclyde Police Special Branch.

"We cannot bear the psychological torture anymore. The authorities treat us like terrorists, as well as putting pressure on Afghans to become informers and spies, but we are not going to be intimidated and pressurised."

"Psychological torture." Come on. If these demonstrators had any concern at all for preventing another terrorist attack in the U.K., they would accept the inconvenience of questioning as the price of preserving British society. I myself am often singled out for extra sceening, and while it can be annoying, I would never term it "psychological torture" -- I am glad to see security personnel doing their jobs.
And then Mohammad Asif affects high dudgeon at Afghans being asked to become "informers and spies"! You would think that he and the people he represents would be honored at being asked to join the war effort against those they themselves would call hijackers of their religion.

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