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| October | 05 |
| 2006 |
I cant see what the problem is with this story:
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair has ordered an inquiry after a Muslim constable was excused from guarding the Israeli embassy in London.Sir Ian says he wants an "urgent review of the situation and a full report".
...The officer, who has been named as Pc Alexander Omar Basha, is attached to the Scotland Yard's Diplomatic Protection Group.
He has a Syrian father and a Lebanese wife.
During the summer, when Israel was involved in a month-long conflict with Lebanese militants, the Association of Muslim Police Officers said Pc Basha had asked to be excused from his duties because he felt "uncomfortable and unsafe".
Of course the police should be able to pick and choose where they work and which cases they investigate. How could anyone reasonably expect a racist policeman to work on a crime against a black victim? Why should a Labour voting PC be forced to provide security at the Conservative Party conference? Why should misogynist policemen be forced to investigate sexual assaults on women? And why should Israeli-hating police officers be forced to prevent crimes against Israelis?
Policemen and women have rights. And it's surely every Muslim police officer's right to stand back and allow the murder of Jews.
Or have I perhaps missed something?
MessageSpace
The real problem lies with the officer(s) who excused him from duty in the first place.
Can you imagine the hoo-hah if a Jewish copper (and there are quite a number, at least in London) had refused to guard an Arab embassy?
Not as bad though as the "Christian" charity which helped poor refugees in Lebanon during the war in that country and at the same time refused to help poor Israeli refugees (and there were many).
And not nearly as bad as the nation of Britain which did everything in its power not to help the victims of the Holocaust at the Bermuda Conference in 1943. As the senior British official, totally ashamed of his actions, later recalled: "It was a conflict of self-justification, a facade for inaction. We said the results of the conference were confidential, but in fact there were no results that I can recall."
Given the fact that Ian Blair is the most politically correct police chief in Britain ever - this was inevitable.
Since PC Basha (who had, presumably, volunteered in the special section of the police that protects politicians and diplomats) has managed to come up with all sorts of reasons: his family in Lebanon at risk, he is at risk, but also that he has moral qualms because of Israeli bombing of Lebanon, one might wonder whether the Israeli embassy staff is safe with an armed copper who has those moral qualms on guard.
I'm puzzled: who or what was this policeman afraid of. That the Israelis would spot him and bomb his relatives? That jihadis would spot him and threaten his relatives in UK or Lebanon for guarding Jews?
I don't know which: but the latter has a certain plausibility that the former lacks.