Muslims supported spy camera project, says MP
CONTROVERSIAL spy cameras in areas of Birmingham with large Muslim populations were supported by the local community – who were sorry to see them go, an MP has insisted.
Khalid Mahmood said Muslim residents backed the “Project Champion” cameras installed by West Midlands Police because they were worried about crime like everyone else.
And he said claims that Birmingham Muslims were angry about the cameras were simply untrue.
More than 200 cameras were installed in Sparkhill, Ward End and Washwood Heath as part of the £3 million scheme in April 2010, but they were removed following claims they were being used to spy on Muslims.
Mr Mahmood (Lab Perry Barr) said complaints about the cameras had come from groups “at the fringes of Muslim life” who don’t speak for ordinary people.
But the MP, a Muslim himself, said these groups had a lot of influence because the Government chose to listen to them.
He made the comments in the introduction to a report setting out the findings of a major survey into the opinions of British Muslims, conducted by think tank Policy Exchange.
Mr Mahmood said Muslims “share many of the same ambitions and priorities as their fellow non-Muslim Britons”.
He said: “The truth of this was brought home to me over the last few years partly as a result of the controversy that surrounded the use of CCTV cameras within parts of Birmingham. Certain local politicians and groups that claimed to ‘speak for’ Muslims made much of the fact that the cameras were being used to
Anxieties about crime far outweighed other imagined grievance MP Khalid Mahmood
‘spy on’ local communities. By insisting that the cameras were part of anti-Muslim security measures, they succeeded in having them turned off or withdrawn.
“If their claims were true, you might have expected this U-turn would have been met with relief locally; and yet, in my experience, from conversations with countless Muslim constituents, most people were sad to see the cameras go.
“How could this be? Because far from seeing them as the latest example of the government’s anti-Muslim agenda, the cameras had in fact been welcomed ed as a useful tool to combat crime.
“And for my y Muslim constituents, as much as for my non-Muslim ones, anxieties s about crime far outweighed other imagined grievances and perceived slights.”
Claims that t the cameras were being used to spy on Muslims were given added weight by a series of sensationalist reports in the Guardian newspaperr at the time.
One report in n the Guardian in June 2010 had the headline: “Surveillancellance cameras in Birmingham track Muslims’ every move”.
Others had headlines refererring to a “Mus- lim CCTV” scheme.