LONDON: UK Home Secretary David Blunkett has sent an unprecedented apology to Muslims living in Britain after its counter-intelligence (MI5) and security services were accused of engaging in indiscriminate ‘fishing expeditions’ to try and find evidence of links to the Al Qaeda group.

In a letter to Muslim leaders sent in the past fortnight, the Home Secretary expressed regret that a number of individuals questioned by MI5 had complained of harassment and intimidation.

Blunkett acted after a number of British Muslims wrote to the Home Secretary about MI5 officers engaging in ‘information sweeps’ through large Muslim communities. People were regularly woken early in the morning and questioned on ‘links’ with Afghanistan.

One firm of solicitors, Arani and Company, have become so concerned about the number of Muslims being approached by MI5 and Special Branch that they have produced a detailed guide on how to deal with the intelligence services, to be distributed through the Islamic community.

Security agents had claimed that the names of those interviewed had been ‘found in Afghanistan’ or in the ‘caves of Tora Bora’. People questioned said that they had no links and no evidence was brought forward.

More than 30 people have been questioned across the country since May. No arrests followed the questioning. “I am sorry that anyone interviewed was distressed by the experience,” Blunkett wrote to one of the people interviewed.

“I understand that on each occasion the interviewers explained the background to the visit and asked the interviewee whether they could assist the authorities in any way.

“The police have also agreed to speak to any interviewees to allay any concerns they may have. Your suggestion of prior consultation with community leaders is most helpful. I appreciate and share your concern that nothing is done to undermine good community relations.”

The letter, leaked to the Muslim News newspaper, said that police had to be seen to be acting ‘sensitively’.

“You will understand that the police have to exercise careful judgment on when and to what extent such careful consultation takes place,” the letter says. “I have asked the police to consult community leaders whenever they are able to do so.”

One person interviewed was Khalid Jessob, a businessman from Leicester in central England, who was visited by Special Branch and a police officer at 7am on 3 August. “I refused to allow them into my house as they did not have a warrant,” Jessob said. I told them: “If you want to talk to me, you’ll have to arrest me”.

Blunkett’s intervention came as a Muslim chef cleared of terrorist charges by a jury revealed he now plans to sue police for unlawful arrest.

Speaking in his first interview since his release from the high-security Belmarsh jail, Sulayman Bilal Zainulabidin, a Muslim convert from south-east London, said: “They say it’s a war against terrorism, but the evidence on the streets of London is that it’s a war against Islam.”

Zainulabidin said the campaign had been led by Andrew Dismore, a Labour MP, who exposed Zainulabidin’s company Sakina Security Services because its website advertised ‘The Ultimate Jihad Challenge’.

The court heard that Zainulabidin had no links to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda organization, and had sent just one person for training — a Sainsbury’s security guard who travelled to a commercial bodyguard training camp in the United States with no link to terrorism.

Zainulabidin, 44, was born Francis Etim and converted from Catholicism to Islam in 1979. His Sakina Security Services website offered courses in ‘bonecrushing’ and ‘the Islamic art of war’.

A two-week course in firearms training in the US called ‘Ultimate Jihad Challenge’ cost $4,500.

Zainulabidin was arrested last October. He had gone to the police for protection after an article voicing Dismore’s concerns about Sakina appeared in the London Evening Standard.

Zainulabidin said it would be difficult to rebuild his life after being branded a terrorist. “If you speak up for oppressed people, it means you are a terrorist. If you give money to any Muslim charity organisations, you’re funding terrorism.”

The Zainulabidin case was seen as Britain’s first show trial against Islam, and involved 1,500 witnesses in 55 countries.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service