Stereotyping Terrorists

Amjad Malik, the solicitor for three of the men arrested in the recent anti-terror raids in the north of England, has insisted that his clients were only arrested because they 'fit the "terrorist" stereotype'.

He went on:

Solicitor Amjad Malik told BBC's Asian Network that the men felt discriminated against because they are Muslims and he says they are innocent.

He said: "Anybody who has a beard and goes to prayer cannot be considered a threat to national security."

Well, presumably if that's the case they are eagerly awaiting their deportation and can't wait to get a free ticket back to the social paradise in which everyone else 'has a beard and goes to pray' - or suffers the consequences.

Alas, no. Who'd have thought it? Mr Malik feels the government has been very 'hasty' in its decision to deport the men - because not enough evidence was found to charge them.

He will now appeal against the deportations to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. He said:

"The secretary of state has a huge responsibility to protect the public but will have to create a balance between the interest of individuals as well as the state."

Yes, that's right. It has an obligation to every British citizen not to fund the appeal of these men - but it will do so anyway.

What Mr Malik strangely fails to mention is that none of them have an automatic right to come here - or to stay.

Only one of them was found to be taking a course at a reputable institution. One turned up with the wrong papers and was let in anyway, and several could not prove they were financially solvent, which is a condition of entry.

So why do we have to answer to a lawyer appointed by the Pakistani High Commission if we wish to point these things out and get rid of them?

Who controls this country's borders? I have pointed out previously that the student visa system is widely seen as a loophole in Britain's border controls. In the same post I revealed that Pakistani Briton Saira Khan urged the government to tighten border controls after her cousin came here on holiday and then disappeared with a mysterious 'uncle' she had never met before.

I also discovered that in 2007 one British university alone counted 379 Pakistani 'absconders' who did not report when their visas expired.

As Khan herself pointed out, taking into account malicious or misleading visa applications, the total of illegal immigrants in this country could well run into millions.

Whether Malik feels it is a stereotype or not, the vast majority of these are the demographic most likely to become radicalised or terrorists - young Muslim men.

It is unbelievable that a supposedly sovereign country like Britain not only has to justify why it might want to take in less of the thousands of young men who currently come from a violent, lawless, Third World terrorist haven like Pakistan - but that we now have to justify anyone we deport.