Blunkett sticks to guns over tough anti-terror laws
Home Secretary David Blunkett defended this Sunday the Government’s controversial anti-terrorism measures, on the same day as the US notched up its terror alert status to orange, one step below red or severe risk.
Mr Blunkett’s defence also comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury warned measures in the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill risked alienating Britain’s Muslims.
Speaking ahead of his first Christmas Day sermon as Archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams spoke out against the detention of foreign nationals without trial, saying imprisonment in high-security jails made it hard to get “the right message” across to moderate Muslims.
He told The Sunday Times: “If we want to persuade moderate Muslims to sign up to toleration and pluralism of the right kind, anything that gives the impression that we are targeting Muslims is problematic. We have a lot of ground to make up.”
Although it was ‘entirely appropriate’ for the Archbishop to comment on these issues, Mr Blunkett said his duty was to protect the British people from the dangers of terrorism.
He told the BBC’s “The World this Weekend:” “We are not holding people in Belmarsh because they are Islamic. We are holding them because they pose a major threat here and across the world. In tackling terrorism, we don’t tackle Islam.
“We tackle those who distort and destroy the name of Islam by using terrorism in a way that was never authorised by the Koran and would never be by decent law-abiding Muslims in this country.”
Mr Blunkett said he was ‘not interested in the religious commitment or the religious background of the individuals concerned.”
The editor of Muslim News backed the Archbishop’s comments. He said the Muslim community felt ‘under siege’ at the present time.
Ahmed Versi told BBC News on Sunday that moderate Muslims in the UK felt they were being ‘targeted’ by the Government.
‘The Muslim community feels that they are under siege.
‘They believe they are being targeted by the Government.
‘They believe that these are just fishing expeditions.”
