British to announce teror-raids in advance

...is what the headline should read: Stop and search: A tough choice.

Leaked guidelines from the Bedfordshire force say that when officers raid Muslim homes they should remove their shoes, not use dogs and not mount pre-dawn raids because at that hour people might by 'spiritually busy'.

When two July 21 terror suspects were arrested last Friday in Notting Hill, the reaction of one of them when told to strip to his underpants? 'I have rights.'

It is less than a month since Islamist terrorists murdered 52 innocent people and yet still the forces of law and order find themselves having to walk on eggshells as they confront this deadly threat.

Why? The overwhelming majority of peaceable, law-abiding Muslims are as anxious as anyone else to see the threat of terrorism expunged. After all, Muslims were among the victims of the July 7 bombings, too.

Of course, in European countries with far bigger Muslim populations than ours, there is less hand-wringing as they confront Islamist hard-liners - witness the speed with which both France and Germany deport rabble-rousing imams.

When five British Sikhs on holiday in New York were handcuffed and detained during a terrorism scare last week, their reaction afterwards? 'No hard feelings.'

Isn't that the kind of stoicism we should all try to emulate in the tense days ahead when people's rights are inevitably going to get a little bruised?

I did not dig deep enough to find the exact report I heard on the radio that described in more detail the restraints some British police forces are taking (you can do your own homework), but here is a (rough) brief summary:

British police officers must not conduct raids during times of prayer, must not enter a room when a Muslim woman is not properly covered, must take their shoes off before entering a house, and something about not barging in a room in case a man is praying or woman is not covered. Stuff along those lines.

This political correctness bullshit is going to get one of the good guys killed.

Posted by Kyer at August 27, 2005 01:03 PM | TrackBack