Row over 'spying' on Muslim politician in Britain

Feb 4, 2008, 12:53 GMT

London - The British government was Monday embroiled in a highly-embarrassing 'bugging' row involving its only Muslim minister who is seen as a rising star in the ruling Labour Party.

The case of Sadiq Khan, a former human rights lawyer who became a member of the parliament (MP) three years ago, has cast a spotlight on Britain's surveillance practices in the wake of the terrorist attacks in London in July, 2005.

It has now emerged that Khan, 37, who has been a key figure in attempts to keep relations with Britain's 1.7 Muslims on track after the transport network attacks, has become a victim of eavesdropping practices from which MP's, under a long-standing rule, are supposed to be exempt.

Khan's conversations in prison in 2005 and 2006 with Babar Ahmad, a 32-year-old London man wanted by the US authorities on charges of running websites inciting murder, urging holy war and raising money for the Taliban, were allegedly monitored by Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch.

After having lost his legal fight in Britain to avoid extradition to the US, Ahmad is currently awaiting a decision on his case from the European Court of Human Rights.

The case has come as an acute embarrassment for the government, which has denied claims by the opposition Conservative Party that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was told of the illegal monitoring of Khan last December.

There was 'no evidence' that Brown had received a letter from David Davies, the Conservative spokesman on home affairs, to this effect, the government said.

Ordering an 'urgent inquiry' into the affair, Justice Secretary Jack Straw made clear Monday that it was 'completely unacceptable' to monitor the activities of members of parliament going about their work as lawmakers.

It is a small irony that Khan, voted parliament's 'newcomer of the year' in a 2005 magazine award, worked as a private secretary for Straw when he (Straw) became leader of the House of Commons following his 2006 sacking as Foreign Secretary ex-premier Tony Blair.

Khan, displaying his customary cool, welcomed the immediate inquiry and said he was keen to find out whether the allegations were true 'because the implications clearly are quite serious.'

Previously as a human rights lawyer, and now in his ministerial role in the government's whip office, Khan has played a key role in the government's efforts to engage with the Muslim community.

However, many will see the surveillance scandal surrounding him as proof that, rather from progress having been made in 'integrating' the Muslim community, the government's increasingly harsh anti-terrorism laws have advanced the process of alienation.

While it will be interesting to see how the Brown government will extricate itself from this sensitive row, Khan's 2006 scathing judgement on efforts of engaging Muslims ring particularly true.

'I worry that the government might become the Duke of York - marching all these talented British Muslims up the hill of consultation and dialogue, only to march them down again as very little appears to have changed,' said Khan.