London Muslim Cop Switch A PC Move?

London's police, facing an uproar over a report that a Muslim officer had been excused from guarding the Israeli Embassy, said that the department decided not to use him there after the officer disclosed his concerns about a war in Lebanon.

"This is not about political correctness. I want to make it clear that this decision was taken on the basis of risk and safety," Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said in a statement released by Metropolitan Police.

Commissioner Ian Blair had ordered an urgent review of the decision following a report in The Sun newspaper saying that Constable Alexander Omar Basha, who worked in the Diplomatic Protection Group, had sought to be excused from duty at the embassy because of moral objections to Israeli bombing of Lebanon.

Basha's wife is Lebanese and his father is Syrian, said Superintendent Dal Babu, chairman of the Association of Muslim Police.

"At the height of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict in August this year the officer made his managers aware of his personal concerns, which included that he had Lebanese family members," Stephenson said.

"Whilst the Israeli embassy is not his normal posting, in view of the possibility that he could be deployed there, a risk assessment was undertaken, which is normal practice. It was as a result of this risk assessment — and not because of the officer's personal views whatever they might have been — that the decision was taken temporarily not to deploy him to the Embassy."

Stephenson did not say what risks were discerned in this case.

The story led newscasts in British media Thursday, and the timing is bad for a police force that has gone out of its way recently to appear culturally diverse and tolerant.

The Metropolitan Police has come under fire several times in recent years over incidents involving Muslims, many of whom feel they've been made innocent targets of newer, tougher anti-terrorism laws in the U.K. The United Kingdom has a large population of Asian Muslims.

Soon after the July 2005 attacks on London's public transport system, by homegrown bombers, Met police officers gunned down a Brazilian man as he sat on an Underground train in South London.

Police said the man ran onto the train after seeing them and being asked to stop. Londoners, with nerves still high from the bombings, later learned he wanted to avoid the police because of his immigration status.

The department was widely criticized for mishandling the investigation into the shooting, with several force members accused of covering up the nature of the incident.

More recently, a police terror raid in east London resulted in the arrest of two Muslim brothers in their early twenties and the non-fatal shooting of one during the raid.

Both men were held on the new terrorism laws, but later released without charge. The incident drew sharp criticism from the Muslim community, including large protests, against the perceived bias of the police.

Not long after the incident, the Met started a very public recruitment drive for officers from the Asian community — partly aimed at bringing the force's demographic more into line with the nation, and partly aimed at fixing a dire image problem.

Before any details had even been disclosed in the case of the embassy guard, debate raged between those who were shocked and those who dismissed it as a minor incident.

"By allowing this officer to avoid guarding the Israeli embassy, the Met has set an extraordinary and dangerous precedent," said Damian Hockney, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, which oversees the department. "What happens if a Greek officer doesn't want to guard the Turkish embassy, or an anti-hunting officer refuses to protect pro-hunt demonstrators?"

But another authority member, Peter Herbert, said the story was a "ridiculous fuss about nothing.

"It is not uncommon for police officers to make requests of a personal nature," Herbert said. "Even officers with connections in Northern Ireland have made similar requests before."

Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, whose union represents lower-ranking officers, said the officer did not refuse the posting but requested another on the basis of his family circumstances.

"It is one thing for an officer to refuse to do something without giving sufficient cause, it is quite another for an officer to make a polite request which if agreed to, would result in a variation of duties," Smyth said.

Babu said he understood that moral objections were not the issue. "This is about the welfare of an individual, and not about a moral issue," Babu said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"This particular officer had brought an issue forward — his wife is Lebanese, his father is from Syria — and he brought up this issue at the start of August this year, and had expressed a desire to be posted elsewhere while the war was going on," Babu said. "He is now working normal DPG (Diplomatic Protection Group) duties, and clearly if an issue happens at the Israeli Embassy he will deal with it."