London's police chief on Thursday launched an urgent review of a decision not to post a Muslim officer at the Israeli embassy after a newspaper reported that he had been excused on moral grounds.
PC Alexander Omar Basha, who is attached to the force's Diplomatic Protection Group, objected to being posted to protect Israel's embassy in central London from possible terrorist attack because he disagreed with the country's bombing of Lebanon during the recent war.
According to British newspaper 'the Guardian', the officer had reportedly attended a recent anti-war protest. Police chiefs excused Basha last week but critics said they feared it would open the floodgates for officers of any religion or belief to refuse to carry out certain duties. "Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances," Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said in a statement.
John O'Connor, a former Metropolitan Police flying squad commander, told the London-based Sun newspaper: "This is the beginning of the end for British policing."
First, we learned that British police forces would now brief a panel of Muslim leaders before conducting terror raids, and now a Muslim Bobbie is excused from guard duty at an Israeli embassy.
But where will it end? Will Catholic Bobbies be refusing guard duty over the Saudi Embassy? Muslims refusing to provide crowd control at the gay pride parade in London? Who knew that a police officer in Britain can get away with picking who and what he consents to serve and protect. Whatever would Nelson think?
No comments:
Post a Comment