Police need to stop their leaks

The Mail on Sunday first ran the story about the new Muslim WPC who 'refused' to shake hands with the head of the Met, Ian Blair.

Despite her superiors being informed well in advance of the issue, you would think given the media coverage that she was standing in a row of people having their hands shaken and when her turn with Sir Ian came she whipped her hand back, put her thumb on her nose and wiggled her fingers about while blowing a raspberry (see this kid with Steven Gerrard).

The Mail helpfully quoted someone at Scotland Yard saying that she could face the sack if she didn't perform her duties. That would presumably apply to anyone.

However, there is no question about her ability or willingness to do the job. This was a front page story despite the Mail burying this point in the middle of the article:

However, it is clear that she is happy to come into contact with men, just not shake their hand or kiss them.

Nonetheless sundry other news sources including the BBC subsequently leaped upon this non-story, quoting the sacking angle.

I don't know if the situation is genuinely difficult to understand, or whether some wilfully wish to carry on this ignorance in public. The scenario is analogous to a doctor who refuses to French kiss his or her boss, but would have no problem in giving mouth-to-mouth should a life saving scenario unfold.

There is the more serious question of how this story appeared in the public domain. I've written before about the leaky nature of the police when it comes to Muslim matters.

In this case we have a senior police source asking:

"There was a great deal of discussion about it afterwards. People were asking how the hell is she going to make an arrest if she refuses to touch men."

Well why "the hell" didn't they just ask her instead of bleating to the press?

This leak comes just a few weeks after the totally unsubstantiated story about the killer of Sharon Beshenivsky fleeing the country in a burqa was leaked by a police source (see tabloid silly season below and .). Add to this the silly leaks after terror arrests (e.g), the accusations of paedophilia made through the News of the World against Abdul Kahar, the case of the Lebanese officer outside the Israeli embassy who was plastered everywhere as a "Muslim officer" instead, and it doesn't cover the police's relations with the Muslim community in glory.

It's hard to explain the above without coming to the conclusion that there are people prominent in the police who have malevolent feelings towards Muslims. At the same time there is said to be a disconnect between the police and Muslims. The Mail article mentions that recruitment campaigns have been a complete dud to date. Our forces are unlikely to win any trust with this kind of behaviour going on. Time to reign in the rogue elements.

Comments

[kris]

I am intrigued: how does this young lady propose to arrest men?

[howard]

Didn't you read the article, kris. She is happy to come in contact men just not shake hands or kiss them.

Since when is it necessary to do either of these to carry out an arrest.

[Yusuf Smith]

She will arrest men the same way male Muslim police officers arrest women, when necessary, dimwit. The same way everyone else does, much as a male doctor gives treatment to a female patient.

The prohibition is on touching without necessity, as in mere social handshake situation.

[johnmellor77]

"The scenario is analogous to a doctor who refuses to French kiss his or her boss, but would have no problem in giving mouth-to-mouth should a life saving scenario unfold."

Is this funniest sentence ever? I think so.

[Abu Sinan]

It is a non issue. I have know religious Jews who do the same thing. As a matter of fact, most of the things that make people not like Muslims are shared by pious Jews as well.

If you hate the Muslim religion, you almost MUST hate Judaism as well.

[infidel and kafir watch]

The media and idiotic people automatically assume that because this Muslim lady refused to shake the hands of Ian Blair, how will see arrest a male?

Police training does not complete over a day or the weekend, but from my knowledge it requires weeks and months of training, role plays and practice arrests. What do you think she did during her training? If she had done the same as what she did to Ian Blair then I imagine she would not have lasted for a day, but she was at the graduation and what does graduation mean? (That means she completed her training and did what every one else did).

I some times really laugh at the news and how the media and their devoted follows make Islam out to be.

[DrM]

Yusuf raises up a good point, most of these morons don't even read the articles before commenting.

[John Palubiski]

The prohibition is on touching without necessity, as in mere social handshake situation.

Who cares what Islam prohibits or permits. "Halal" and "harem" are immaterial, dimwit, because this is NOT an islamic police force. It is a secular police-force with the responsability of enforcing secular law.

Her very first DUTY as a member of that force was to engage in a social handshake with her boss, but her skewed religious convictions prevented her from perfoming that DUTY.

Her version of Islam, then, impedes the execution of her functions.

Incompetant from the get-go.

What's more, this gal is intimately (insert own joke) aware of British mores and social customs. Her gesture can only be properly understood in light of its intentionality.

She knew full well that refusing to shake the chief's hand would be interpreted as a crude snub, a cheap passive/aggressive stunt. Such supremacist-tainted gestures of non-repsect have no place whatsoever in a secular police force.

So let her learn about that other British custom, commonly called "the boot".....

[Abu Sinan]

John,

Did she take an oath to uphold social conventions? Having lived in England I observed that one social convention often is to drink and have sex outside of marriage. These are common activities for most people in the UK.

Does she have to do this as well?

Silly me, I thought policing was about upholding laws, not social convention.

Do you feel the same way about Orthodox Jews who have the same practice? If so, as well as being Islamophobic you can count yourself as anti-Semitic.

People have the right to their religious beliefs as long as they do not hurt anyone. Not shaking someone's hand does not hurt anyone.

I guess you then suggest that Westerners who visit and or work in Muslim countries practice the social norms of the country they are in right?

So you would support a total ban on alcohol in UAE? Lots of ex-pats there would be pissed at the idea. You support the idea of making Western women cover when they go to Muslim countries?

How about banning Pork in places like UAE, Oman, Kuwait and other places where they go out of their way to provide these items for non Muslim residents? The next time a Brit in Dubai wants a bacon butty they would certainly object to your idea. Yet it is something that the people of the countries do to accomodate ex-pats even though it is expressly AGAINST the social norms of their society.

These are all social conventions in these countries, so I guess with your ideas all Westerners should be forced to comply with all social conventions in ALL Muslim lands, and if they dont like it they can leave?

Your idea is plainly intolerant no matter where it would be put into practice.

See, as a Muslim, I realise there must be some give and take if we want to live in a tolerant society. So if we dont force you to wear hijab or not to drink, dont force us to shake hands.

No harm, no foul. This is more of a wind up for those who already hate Islam and Muslims.

[johnmellor77]

To be honest Abu, it'd have been less rude of her to do what that kid did to Steven Gerrard.

[John Palubiski]

Having lived in England I observed that one social convention often is to drink and have sex outside of marriage. These are common activities for most people in the UK.

Does she have to do this as well?

Yes, one joins the police force to drink and have sex!

Now,"Abu", harness those last few functioning brain-cells and take note:

If you are unable to check your "harem" and your "halal" at the office door when reporting for duty, if you cannot adapt to even the smallest and most innocuous aspects of British social customs, then guess what?

You DO NOT BELONG in the police corps.

Other Muslim women already serving in the police forces have done as much with NO TROUBLE whatsoever. And, to boot, they do not feel as though they've had to compromise their faith. They have broken though; they have adapted to modernity with flying colours.

See, as a Muslim, I realise there must be some give and take if we want to live in a tolerant society. So if we dont force you to wear hijab or not to drink, dont force us to shake hands.

A winner!

Tell ya what, Abu, if RADICAL Muslims stop imposing their churlish moral superstitions on British society, then British society will continue to allow them to live here. But if radical Muslims, and it is only the radicals who are doing this, persist in this type of aggression; if they cannot adapt, integrate and progress, then those radicals should be shown the door.

The UK's Islamic community will be much better for it because *gestures of non-integration*, such as this case, are what fuels outfits like the BNP.

[Abu Sinan]

You have yet to answer the question, should Jews, say the Hassidic Jews, be forced to leave the UK?

They are by far more insular than even the most insular radical Islamist. Their religious beliefs stand almost 100% against the norm in the UK?

See, I understand how in todays society you are more than willing to call for the expulsion of Jews if they dont follow every society norm in the country. But what about Jews?

The same MUST go for them if you are not to be a hypocrite! So John, when are you going to start railing for the expulsion of Hassidic Jews?

[joe90]

Or how about the expulsion of educationally sub-normal half-wits with Slavic sounding foreign names?

Or how about the expulsion of intolerant anti-democratic racists, who support collective punishment and who are completely against the grain of British people and the British way of life - in fact, I thought we wiped you and your kind out in the last World War, how did you manage to escape?

I would ask for the expulsion of Rupert Murdoch, one of the main spreaders and disseminator of vile racist lies and racist intolerance in Britian - but he isn't even British!

[George Carty]

Yes, one joins the police force to drink and have sex!

????????????????

I think John Palubiski views are inspired by Another Modest Proposal: Impose America's Decadent Culture on the Muslims. IMHO it's one of the most evil articles I've read and may require a strong stomach (especially for Muslim readers).

[aineliva]

Interesting link George. Dean Swift's, Original "Modest Proposal", was satire designed to jolt the conscience of the British Isles to the plight of the Irish.

This, is not satire, it's not funny, and Swift would be appalled, as am I.

[johnmellor77]

Abu,

You're being a bit disingenuous with your point about Hassidic Jews. We have religious freedom over here, people can do what they like - if they wish to shun all human company because they think it will bring them closer to their God then that is up to them.

The problem is when someone imposes their own beliefs on everyone else. In the UK refusing to shake someone's hand is saying this: "I want nothing to do with you, I am above you." It is that insulting.

This woman has made a statement about the rest of the UK and her position in relation to it, its customs, and the organisation she has joined - whether she really intended to or not. She has also made sure that every other copper on the parade ground that day will remember their graduation as the ceremony where that uppity Muslim WPC gave the metaphorical finger to the top policeman in the country. Well done her.

If this WPC felt that she could not shake Blair's hand because of what happened to Charles de Menezes but still wanted to join the force to improve it, then fair enough. To use the mimsy excuse of her religion is ridiculous...Not quite as ridiculous as both you and Osama trying to conflate shaking hands with sex but ridiculous nontheless.

A policeman or woman's job involves far more than just arresting people. What if she asked to take on a community role? Will she have to explain to everyone she meets that she cannot shake their hand or will the Met have to excuse her from any such duties?

What is she is given the job of telling a man their wife has been killed? What if the guy, in his distress, tries to hug her? Will she get the CS spray out?

If she is so hardline in her beliefs does she frown upon gays? Will she be able to treat two gay men who are the victim of crime the same as a Muslim couple?

The answer, I suspect, is that she will put aside her beliefs while on the job. The trouble is she has already demonstrated she cannot, or will not, do that.

John Palubiski is right, I'm afraid, when he says this incident - utterly trivial in the grand scheme of things - is fuel to the BNP.

[Sohaib]

This is not a matter of being "hardline". For observant Muslims, shaking hands with the opposite sex is something we try to avoid. For some, the decision is made on the spot depending on the situation. So a Muslim man/woman might shake the hands of a woman/man if politely explaining would be too much difficulty at that point.

It seems this lady took the initiative and exxplained the matter of sensitivity in advance. She must have assumed that the chief of the Met Police would have some basic understanding of such matters and wouldn't blow it out of proportion. But the report suggests that he was "bloody furious".

I've met with very senior police inspectors and I'm quite sure they wouldn't be "bloody furious" at such a request. There is a racist, Islamophobic agenda here.

[John Palubiski]

They are by far more insular than even the most insular radical Islamist. Their religious beliefs stand almost 100% against the norm in the UK?

Islamists are obsessed with Jews, Abu, and your comments reflect that.

YOu're talking apples and oranges.

Hassidic Jews don't enforce their values on the larger society and nor do they engage in aggressive proslytising. They are isolationists and are content to keep to themselves like those austere Catholic orders of Monks etc. They place no pressure, thus, on secular institutions, and have absolutely no desrie to "Judaize" the larger society.

Nor do they establish parallel Jewish parliments.

Do.You.See.The.Difference?

Now I don't want ANYONE to leave the UK. However, I think that if through word and deed an individual expresses utter contempt for British norms and Birtish society, and if their behavior is anti-social to the extreme, then those individuals should be forced to leave.

Makes perfect sense because if you've no desire to integrate, participate or to respect social customs, then you're in the wrong country.

Citizenship is a bit like home-cooking; if you despise what's on your plate, then why the hell did you prepare it in the first place?

Abu, this women cannot do her duty properly because she's been fitted with a skewed strain of Islam that drips supremacism, promotes hate and which prevents her from fully engaging with the wider public.....the central focus of police work.

I feel sorry for her, she's a victim, but her victim-status is not the result of British islamophobia; rather it's the result of an unfortunate indoctrination that confuses tribal Bedouin cultural practises (women not shaking hands) with the far more sophisticed and nuanced principles of Islamic theology.

In the Christian world the equivalent type of individual is generaly referred to as a "heretic"....like the Puritans.

If I'm wrong here, then why do all the Muslim women I work with, whether they wear a head-scarf or not, shake my hand all the time?

Are you telling me these women are ALL wrong and only the good police constable right?

[johnmellor77]

Sohaib,
If I understand you right, Muslims who shake hands with members of the opposite sex are not being observant.

Muslims, however, on the spur of the moment, can decide to shake hands with a member of the opposite sex.

Is it a religious observance that must be obeyed or is it not?

[John Palubiski]

It seems this lady took the initiative and exxplained the matter of sensitivity in advance

It's ALWAYS about your "sensitivites", isn't it?

It is not we who need sensitivity training, rather it is YOU who needs DE-sensitivity sessions.

You need a better understanding of British mores and social customs so that you can better adapt to the reality of a non-Muslim culture.

Of course, your agenda of islamisation by small increments can't broker that, now can it?

[Abu Sinan]

But John Mellor, Hassidic Jews, both males and females will NOT shake hands with anyone of the opposite sex. So if you condemn Muslims for the same practice and suggest they leave the country, you MUST suggest the same treatment for these religious Jews.

Basically what you are saying is that religious Muslims and Jews need not apply right? Would a religious Jew have a right not to work on the Sabbath? If they choose not to should they be deported because the rest of the UK has no issues with the idea?

John Palu-

I am not obsessed with Jews, I am simply pointing out to you your own hypocrisy. What you claim is an issue with Muslims is ALSO an issue with many observent Jews. I have no issue with Jews, anyone who read my blog would know otherwise.

You are missing the point. You said Muslims must assimilate to British society or leave. I pointed out that religious Jews do many of the same things that observant Muslims do, yet you do not encourage them to assimilate or leave.

If you have ever been in a Hassidic neighborhood, as I have in London and New York, you'll know that there is busling trade and that many non Jews come in and out of the areas. Try to shake the hand of a Jewish lady you see in such an area and see what happens.

As a matter of fact, try to do any sort of work in such a neighborhood on the Sabbath and see what happens. You will be lucky if you get off with a few kind reminders, rather than hit up side the head or have something thrown at you.

Yes, assimilate or leave right? Again, everything you pointed at the Muslim community is almost EXACTLY, VERBATIM, to what could also be leveled at the orthodox and Hassidic Jewish community.

It is your hypocrisy that doesnt allow you to see it.

If you call for Muslims to leave, you must also call for observant Jews to leave as well.

If you do not you are nothing more than a hypocrite.

Your issue is that you know everyone would rise up against you if you talked about deporting Jews, but since Islamophobia is all of the fashion these days, you feel safe in making such statements about Muslims.

Coward.

[Abu Sinan]

John Mellor,

Muslims are enjoined, like obeservant Jews, to avoid any contact with people of the opposite sex that one is not related to.

It used to be a part of traditional Christian observance as well, until most Western brands of Christianity have almost reformed themselves into something unrecognisable.

Head to places in Africa where an older, more traditional Christianity is still practiced and this is still the case. Christian men dont touch Christian women they are not related to, they do not eat pork, the women cover their hair when they go to church.

[johnmellor77]

Abu,
When did I ever suggest anyone left the country? I said people's religious observances were their own business but it was wrong to demand others bend over backwards to accommodate them and that in situations like this one, refusing a handshake takes on something far more symbolic than religious observance.

As for the Sabbath, I would think if you join the police, there's very little room to pick and choose when you work, whatever your religion.

And would you say Sohaib is wrong to say people can pick and choose when they shake hands with a member of the opposite sex?

[Sohaib]

John Mellor, you don't know the subtleties of Islamic law and of this particular matter. Basically it is wrong to shake hands with the opposite sex. But some scholars may allow some flexibility in the matter.

As a wider point because people seem oblivious to it, religious commandments are of numerous types and levels. There are things that are "prohibited", but other things are all "allowed". However, among those are the things that are merely allowed with no preference either way, while some things are "disliked" (a degree less than being prohibited).

There are also things that are "recommended", a shade less than "obligatory". Among the obligatory are numerous levels of importance and priority. So for example, observing rules of hijab in public is obligatory, but wouldn't be the first thing to emphasise, e.g. before establishing the ritual prayers.

[johnmellor77]

Sohaib,
You've just repeated your earlier post and said it's wrong to shake hands with a member of the opposite sex unless it's allowed.

Utterly baffling. No wonder the subtleties are beyond me.