by Rebecca Camber, Daily Mail
Muslim police who defend Hamas are damaging forces’ impartiality.
The warning came in an analysis of police officer associations, which highlighted how some are entering ‘contested ideological, religious or political territory’.
There are more than 200 staff networks, which cover a range of characteristics, including veganism and paganism. However, there is little oversight of their activities.
Now, the Policy Exchange think-tank has raised concerns about police neutrality after the official body representing Muslim cops in Britain published a report defending Hamas and attacking Israel.
Last year, the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) complained of ‘unverified stories about acts of violence by Hamas’ during the October 7 terror attacks in a 39-page document.
The same report, written by the association’s then-vice-president Khaldoun Kabbani, also described the Israel Defence Forces as a ‘Zionist terrorist group’ and compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust. The Jewish Leadership Council described the claims as ‘grossly offensive’ when they were revealed by The Spectator magazine in June.
NAMP went on to drop the document, called ‘Confronting Anti-Muslim Hatred and Promoting Human Rights’, from its website. It said the views expressed were those of Mr Kabbani, who had since left the association.
But Policy Exchange said the document’s publication raised concerns about the impartiality of police officers, who are required to treat all members of the public equally under the law.