Spying on Muslims

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/6353035/Anti-extremism-scheme-spying-on-muslims.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/16/anti-terrorism-strategy-spies-innocents

Is this to be condoned in a free country, or a necessity taking into account the present situation?

[TCL-MUMPING]

Do you think it right to spy on the innocent then?

[Sqad]

TCL....How do you recognize the innocent.?...........that is the problem.

[TCL-MUMPING]

"A multi-million pound government scheme designed to prevent the radicalisation of young British Muslims is being used to gather intelligence about innocent people not suspected of terrorism involvement, it was claimed."

If they are not suspects, why are they being spy on them?

[Sqad]

TCL....Of course they are labelled "innocent"because either they are not planning terrorist attacks or that they are and have done and not been caught. There are a lot of terrorists labelled "innocent."

If one is looking for Islamic terrorists, one does not tend to waste time in the leafy suburbs of Chipping Sodbury, or the Jewish Community or the Irish, or football hooligans, but in the Muslim Community......which seems perfectly reasonable to me, particularly if it saves the lives of innocent men, women and children.

[Sqad]

AOG....correct.

[jno]

I wasn't being petty, I was wishing you well. Why so quick to take offence?

[Sqad]

birdie....exactly.....".that's the way the cookie crumbles."

[Kromovaracun]

\"When the IRA was the main terrorist threat in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, men with Irish accents were routinely singled out, stopped and questioned by police. \"

You view the resounding success of this technique as a good precedent to go by, then?

[rov1200]

Put simply its either their freedom or ours. It was no coincidence that the staff of MI5 grew from about 3000 to 8000 during the Iraq war. The threats and actions from the enemy within has altered the balance of a free society able to move about and do its business unhindered. Some innocents may be caught up in these terrorist plots but thats the price they pay for being from the same tribe. The original immigrants are free to go back from where they came but they seem to delight in siding with the insurgents who only wish the country harm. It seems countries like Russia and China have more respect for their countries and would have tackled the problem at source not trying to pacify them.

[TCL-MUMPING]

"the sad fact is that in this terrorist threat situation, all Muslims are suspect."
Using that logic, all men are suspect paedophiles and rapists.

[Cheeris]

ahmskunnirt

That is the most incoherent and blathering post I have ever seen on this website.

Really, I cannot fathom your arguments at all.

[jno]

"If you've nothing to hide, what's the problem?"

That's an easy one: the problem is the police arrest the wrong people. Ask the Birmingham Six. The Guilford Five. The Maguire Seven.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Six

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven

Every one of them wrongly convicted - guilty only of looking Irish (and not even that)