Source: Beliefnet.com

Wire Service: AP

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/161/story_16192_1.html

On March 3, 2005 the Associated Press reported, "Britain's top police officer said Thursday the country's Muslim population was more likely to be targeted for police searches. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said police 'stop and searches,' carried out under government anti-terrorism regulations, did not require individual suspicion and it was a reality that Muslim people would be disproportionately targeted. Blair's comments supported remarks by Home Office minister Hazel Blears, who told a parliament committee meeting Tuesday that 'the (terrorist) threat is most likely to come from those people associated with an extreme form of Islam, or who are falsely hiding behind Islam.' 'I think that is the reality and I think we should recognize that. If a threat is from a particular place then our action is going to be targeted at that area,' she said. In the past, the government has repeatedly maintained that the disproportionate number of nonwhite people being stopped and searched was unacceptable."