SALMA - "NO WAKE UP CALL NEEDED" FOR MUSLIMS

20-02-2008

Birmingham Respect Councillor Salma Yaqoob has reacted angrily to claims by MP Khalid Mahmood that the conviction of five city men in a terror plot was a "wake up call" to the community.  She said that just reinforces negative images about local Muslims and helps reinforce a siege mentality.

Mahmood said on this site yesterday, “There were some people who were saying this was a trumped up charge and would come to nothing.  They’ve got to stop burying their heads in the sand.”

According to Yaqob, he’s missing the point.

“What happened at the time of those arrests is that all kinds of leaks were coming out of Whitehall that put the whole community under pressure.

“The source of those leaks has never been identified and it created the dangerous impression that the police were on one side and we were on the other.

“Within the community, I was working hard to reassure people that they were not living in a police state, because rightly or wrongly, that was the impression that was being given.

“It wasn’t the community on one side and the police on the other, but the voices saying that were not reflected.”

Yaqoob believes that Mahmood’s comments only reinforces the belief in mainstream society that the Muslim community gives succour to terrorists.

“That’s just not true and it’s not helpful for him to say it,” she says.

“It was individuals who were on trial, not the Muslim community, but we keep being made to feel as if we are all under siege.

“I welcome the prosecution of Parviz Khan and the other people because they are a threat to us all.”