UK news dominated by assimilation troubles

Veilgate‘s been raging there for the past few days but this morning it finally got knocked off the front page. Here’s what replaced it:

Thanks to our pal Brian of London for scanning that. The top story before Veilgate was the curious case of Alexander Omar Basha, the Muslim policeman exempted from having to guard the Israeli embassy. Initially, it was thought that he’d asked for the exemption on “moral grounds” — which, to their credit, even the Muslim Council of Britain denounced as an abdication of his duty.

Then it turned out that Basha’s wedding was officiated by none other than the Don Corleone of British jihadism, the since-deported Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. Basha’s father is related to Mohammed and, as it happens, is a “Muslim activist” himself, although allegedly not of the radical variety.

So is Basha a closet jihadi? Maybe — or, just maybe, he’s a target of jihadis. According to the Guardian:

The constable, whose wife is from Lebanon and has relatives there, works in the Metropolitan police diplomatic protection group. He has never been stationed at the Israeli embassy, but requested during the summer that he not be sent there because of his family background and concerns for his safety…

Superintendent Dal Babu, of the Association of Muslim Police Officers, said: “There was heightened tension and al-Muhajiroun and al-Ghurabaa have targeted Muslim officers in the past and he didn’t want to be in that position. The officer’s family were affected by the war. He has friends and relatives who are Lebanese Muslims and Christians.”

He said that PC Basha was now back to his normal duties.

Al-Muhajiroun is the now-defunct Islamist sect founded by none other than Omar Bakri Mohammed. Its successor, al-Ghurabaa, is also now defunct — in theory. It was banned over the summer for inciting terrorism. Its most famous spokesman?

To sum up, there are three possibilities here: (a) the cop is himself a jihadi; (b) the cop or his family are under threat of being killed by jihadis for protecting the Israeli embassy and British authorities aren’t sure if they can protect him; (c) the cop is a “moderate” Muslim who can’t quite bring himself to do his job if it means guarding Zionists. I’m genuinely not sure which is the most depressing.

Meanwhile, this just came through in my RSS reader. The British National Party must be rubbing its hands with glee.

Update: Jack Straw? He shouldn’t be allowed to comment on the veil.

Update: Speaking of the BNP, some thug snatched the veil off a woman’s face today at a bus stop in Liverpool.

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