Refreshing to see Lord Stevens stating the "bleedin' obvious".

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British Muslims targeted by ex-police chief
Annabel Crabb, London
August 14, 2006

AS LEADERS of Britain's Muslims appealed to Prime Minister Tony Blair
to reduce tensions after last week's terror alert, a former London
police chief has inflamed the debate by blaming Muslims for terrorist
networks in the country.

"When will the Muslim community in this country accept an absolute,
undeniable, total truth: that Islamic terrorism is their problem?"
wrote Lord Stevens, former commissioner of London's Metropolitan
Police, in an opinion column for the News of the World.

In their open letter to Mr Blair on Saturday, Muslim leaders urged 
him to alter his political stance on the Middle East, which they said
provided "ammunition to extremists who threaten us all".

Lord Stevens, whose continuing responsibilities include the inquiry
into Princess Diana's death, called on Muslims to "stop the denial,
endless fudging and constant wailing that somehow it is everyone
else's problem and, if Islamic terrorism exists at all, they are
somehow the main victims".

He also defended racial profiling at airports and other hotspots,
saying resources were being wasted on searching everybody out of a
sense of fairness.

"I'm a white, 62-year-old, suit-wearing ex-cop - I fly often, but do 
I really fit the profile of a suicide bomber?" Lord Stevens wrote.

His comments clash with a speech delivered last week, before the
latest arrests, by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique
Ghaffur, who said profiling had discriminated against Muslims and
added to racial tensions in Britain.

"Of course, there'll be instant squealings that this is racism. It's
not," Lord Stevens insisted.

"It's exactly the same as recognising that, during the Northern
Ireland troubles that left thousands dead, the IRA were totally based
in the Catholic community and the UVF in the Protestant."

[...]

Full article at "The Age" - Melbourne
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/
top-cop-blames-uk-muslims/2006/08/13/1155407670241.html


Cheers, Steve..

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