Council's education chief detained by Nottingham East Midlands Airport police for 'being Muslim'
04.02.06
Leicester City Council's education chief today claimed he was detained by police at Nottingham East Midlands airport for nearly three hours because he is Muslim. Hussein Suleman, Council cabinet member for education and the authority's race relations spokesman, was held on arrival at the airport on Tuesday under anti-terror laws.
The 43-year-old Liberal Democrat councillor, his brother, Mohammed, and a business associate, were among the only Asians on the plane, said Mr Suleman. All three are Muslim. He said: 'What's the most difficult thing to accept is that they stopped me because I am Muslim. They actually said so as well. They said "We have to stop you because you are Muslim".'
The Leicestershire police officers, who are stationed at the airport, questioned him about his trip and searched his luggage, he said. Mr Suleman claimed they also took copies of pages from his business diary and other documents, as well as numbers from his mobile phone.
He said: 'I am shocked. I am not so worried about myself. I can handle these people because if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. But how many other Muslims are going through this?'
'To discriminate only against Muslim people flies in the face of what the Government is saying. We can now see how we are not winning the War on Terror, because of these draconian laws.'
Mr Suleman claimed the authorities were using the pretext of the Terrorism Act 2000 to compile a database about Muslims.
Responding to his accusations, a Leicestershire Police spokesman said: 'The three men, who were among a number of Asian passengers on the flight, spent around two-and-a-half hours speaking with police before resuming their journey.'
'In these times of heightened security, people are being stopped at airports across the country on a daily basis. Leicestershire Constabulary is committed to protecting all of the diverse communities that make up the population of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.'
'We do not seek to target or criminalise any part of any community and we would like to take this opportunity to reassure members of our communities that we do not treat the powers conveyed on us through the Terrorism Act lightly. We use these powers to protect and, while that means that sometimes people are inconvenienced by being stopped and spoken to by officers, we would ask for understanding of our efforts to protect the public from terrorism.'
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