Researcher ‘fears terror arrest’
I hear tell they did this stuff in Nazi Germany… now it’s the US and the UK … and everyone else who got sucked into it by the Bush administration….
Mr Shaffi fears his research will place him in conflict with anti-terror laws
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Maroof Shaffi, who teaches at Bradford College, said the heightened security situation and anti-terror laws were leaving many Muslims in fear of arrest.
Mr Shaffi told the BBC that during his research many books he was ordering had the word “Jihad” in the title.
Police said extremist literature alone was not enough to send people to jail.
West Yorkshire Police said “a number of factors” had to be in place for anyone to become of interest to the police.
Convictions quashed
But Mr Shaffi said he, and the Muslim community in West Yorkshire, had wider concerns.
“I was doing some research and I suddenly looked at the titles of the books that I was buying and every book had the word Jihad in it.
“It pricked my conscience a bit, that somebody would somehow see these books as being those kind of books kept in the house of a violent extremist.”
In 2007 four students from Bradford University were convicted of possessing extremist literature, but earlier in 2008 their convictions were quashed.
Mr Shaffi said it was cases such as these that led to concerns in the wider Muslim community.
Many of the books Mr Shaffi uses for research contain the word “Jihad”
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“People have been arrested and then whole lives turned upside down - and then just let go because there was nothing there.
“There’s a certain amount of paranoia developing around the community as a whole.”
But he said the majority of Muslims did not want to become involved in extremist action.
“I believe the majority of the community are law-abiding and peace-loving people.”
In a statement West Yorkshire Police said: “A number of factors would have to be in place for someone to be of concern to police.
“However, we collect the evidence and it is the CPS who decide whether or not an offence has been committed.”
May 30th, 2008 | Category: Islamophobia, UK Paranioa
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