By Stefan Morkis

A SPOKESMAN for the Muslim Association of Britain who called for Dundee Muslims to “resist” police encroachments on personal freedoms has denied urging non-co-operation.

Osama Saeed, an SNP candidate in East Renfrewshire at the last General Election, spoke on Monday night in Dundee at a meeting called Taking Liberties about the actions of Tayside Police Special Branch community contact unit (SBCCU).

Mr Saeed told the meeting the Muslim community needed to be stronger in its defiance but claims comments reported since were taken out of context.

The Courier has a full tape recording of Mr Saeed’s speech, while the group organising the meeting said later in a statement defending Mr Saeed that he had supported their call for people not to provide Special Branch officers with any information.

Mr Saeed told the meeting SBCCU activities were isolating the Dundee Muslim community and, in no uncertain terms, said these actions must be opposed.

He said, “There is no extremism to talk about (in Dundee) and they are barking up the wrong tree. But that’s my message to the police—‘lay off.’

“But my message to the Muslim community as well is that we need to be stronger in our defiance of this.

“We need to stop, and many people have come to me and complained about police at their door or police at their Islamic society meetings, but it is also very clear that there aren’t people having the guts to stand up within Dundee itself and say, ‘no, you can’t do this.’ ”

He went on to say, “If you look at the history of our faith, what is there apart from the Prophetic example of standing up to tyranny, standing up to oppression?

“What if the Prophet Mohammed had thought, ‘Well, you know, sod this, I’m coming under too much flak here, I’m not going to do anything.’

“What about Moses freeing the Israelites? We have got to look at those kind of examples and these people faced things far more extreme than we faced.”

He concluded his speech by saying the police’s job is to erode personal freedoms and that it was everyone’s duty to resist that.

“And they, the Government, will be delighted if we shrink back into our shells and think we are not going to engage with these issues any more,” he said.

“They will be delighted but we should not give them that satisfaction.

“The police are doing their jobs. Their job is to always push the boat out, to push the limits they can push, to come out and snoop and to erode freedoms.

“But our job equally is to resist that, and resist that we must.”

Last night, he denied this was a call for non-co-operation with the SBCCU.

He told The Courier that Tayside Police’s relationship with the Muslim community was now at a nadir.

“To claim that I advocated non-co-operation from the police is ridiculous,” he said. “The word non-co-operation is not there (in my speech) at all.

“We need to create better relations.”

When asked if he was opposed to the SBCCU he said he was not opposed to the unit or the police per se but rather some of its methods.

He stood by comments that these should be resisted but did not specify what those methods were, or what form resistance should take.

Mr Saeed later issued a written statement denying his speech could be seen as advocating non-co-operation with the SBCCU.

It said, “I’ve been asked if I disavow the statements attributed to me in the Dundee Courier. The fact is that the word ‘non-co- operation’ did not pass from my lips, and the newspaper itself could not produce a quote from me backing their spurious story up.

“I’m sad to hear that Tayside Police have jumped on this bandwagon.

“They know that we don’t back non-co-operation. We had a meeting with them yesterday (Monday) afternoon where we laid out a number of proposals for them to better their relations with the Muslim community.

“The meeting happened because relations between Muslims and Tayside Police have been deteriorating due to the activities of the Special Branch Community Contact Unit.

“This unit, unique in Scotland, has amongst other things, been turning up and questioning young people at their homes because they happen to be Muslim,” he added.

“One of the concerns that the police said they had was of isolated Muslims being vulnerable to brainwashing by extremists.

“Their actions have, however, been creating the very isolation they fear. Muslims are afraid to go to the mosque in case they are questioned and membership of the Dundee Uni Islamic Society has fallen lest students fall under the radar of special branch.

“The tactics are isolating Muslims, fostering bad relations between them and the police and will not foil terrorism if it exists in Dundee—all three being the exact opposite of their stated aims.

“The fight against terrorism must be intelligence-led, not led by the creed of members of the public.

“Their approach is like finding a needle in a haystack, but it assumes that Muslims are just one big haystack and indeed that there is a needle to find in the first place.”

Monday’s event was organised by Scotland Against Criminalising Communities and a statement by them last night defended Mr Saeed, although it clearly encouraged people not to co-operate with the SBCCU.

“The position our campaign takes is very clear,” it said. “We encourage people to co-operate with good policing. We encourage them to report real crime to the police. We encourage minority communities to engage actively and confidently with the whole community.

“But we insist that a healthy civil society can’t exist unless people can discuss political matters freely and without fear.

“Politics has never been any business of the police in this country and it isn’t their business today. So we urge people not to discuss ordinary political activities with the police. In particular, we urge them not to respond to general requests for information from the Special Branch Community Contact Unit.”