Anti-terror police arrest Muslim author and former al-Qaida recruiter as he boards flight to Pakistan

A muslim author who admits being a former al-Qaida recruiter was today being questioned by anti-terror police.

Hassan Butt, who penned a book on his terrorist past - was detained at Manchester Airport yesterday afternoon.

Mr Butt, 31, is understood to have arrived at Terminal 2 and bought a ticket to Lahore, Pakistan, 45 minutes before the Pakistan International Airlines flight was due to leave.

He is being questioned by Greater Manchester's regional counter terrorism unit. Since his arrest, police have searched his home in north Manchester and two other properties nearby and two cars were last night taken away for forensic examination.

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Hassan Butt has protested his conversion from "radical Islam" many times, I always thought he  "protesteth too much".

Leopards do not readily change their spots

Gandalf

British Airways takes beef off the menu to avoid offending Hindus

For decades the national dish has been a staple meal on the national carrier.

But now British Airways has taken beef off the menu for economy passengers amid concerns about its "religious restrictions".

The airline has instead switched to a fish pie or chicken dish option for the so-called "cattle class" passengers.

BA's second-biggest long-haul market is to India, where the majority Hindu population do not eat beef because of their beliefs.

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In-flight food: BA passengers will be served a chicken or fish meal after beef has been taken off the menu

The decision to scrap the nation's favourite fare was described as a "great shame" by the English Beef and Lamb Executive, formerly part of the Meat and Livestock Commission.

A spokesman said: "It is regrettable that Britain's flag carrier is not proposing to serve Britain's national dish.

"It is a meal we are rightly proud of. Roast beef and beefeaters are symbols or Britain used to promote tourism.

"Our beef is also much in demand overseas. It is predominately grass fed and highly praised for its flavour.

"It is obviously up to British Airways to decide what they serve on flights, but beef is an ideal meat for making into airline meals." A BA spokesman said the it stopped serving beef to economy class passengers last month.

He added: "We can only serve two options and beef and pork obviously have religious restrictions.

"We have to try to use two meals which appeal to as many customers as possible. This summer season we are offering customers in World Traveller on most longhaul flights a choice of chicken and tarragon or fish pie.

"We also look at trends from major supermarkets to see what types of meals are popular and fish pie style meals are selling well at the moment.

"These two meals proved popular in tasting tests and are also proving popular on board.

"It has nothing to do with the fear of causing offence - we always offer alternative meals for people with special dietary requirements if they order in advance.

"We are still serving beef based meals on certain menus in First Class and Club World and are currently deciding on whether or not to use beef on the menus for World Traveller customers for the winter season."

The Hindu Council UK said: "The Hindu community will welcome this decision and the news it has been made partly because Hindus don't eat beef.

"Hindus have a great deal of respect for British culture and are well integrated into the British way of life, so it's good to see evidence of how they are literally flying the British flag by choosing British Airways.

"That said, Hindus are tolerant of the beliefs of others and do not expect everyone to stop eating a food because they do not eat it."

In the past three months world beef prices have risen from about £2,500 a tonne to more than £4,000 a tonne, largely because of the weakening dollar and rising feed costs.

BA also said that cost is not a reason for the decision to stop serving beef.

For the second time in two months (57 yr old Canon Michael Ainsworth was attacked by "Asians" this past March) an East End clergy has been attacked and beaten by muslim thugs.The Reverend Kevin Scully was attacked in his churchyard as a hate-filled revenge attack for the priest stopping muslim youths from the disrespectful if not blasphemous act of using the church's Christian cross as a basketball hoop some three days prior to the attack. The three muslim scum returned to exact their revenge and inflict their violent hate on the Reverend who was attacked then punched and kicked leaving the lone priest cowering on the ground before he could run for help. A man, passing by, tried to help Reverend Scully, the good Samaritan was also beaten. The priest fled into his church where he feared the thugs would follow and continue the beating. A clear case of a muslim hate crime?

Second attack on East End clergy by teenage thugs

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is in process of holding seminars around the UK so it can develop more ways of pandering to muslims and accomodating the Islamic faith in British police stations. Prayer stations are expected to be placed in all police stations. Scotland has just created its first Muslim Police Association in order to "combat Islamophobia".

In a touchy-feely approach to "feeling the muslim experience" - (the police version of "walking a mile in your shoes a burka") the police hope that empathizing with muslims will enable the police service to recruit more muslims. Hiring men and women who would make the best police officers is now taking a back seat to individual recruitment targets, which reflect the cultural diversity of the community it serves - in other words--- minority quotas are required and must be attained regardless of the quality of the applicants.

Thus the islamisation of the British police is quickly progressing - with the help of dhimmi police organisations.

entire article - emphasis mine

It has been organised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

Spokesman Rob Beckley said the seminar - the first of its kind to be organised by ACPO - was not in response to any specific incident.

"We want to understand the experiences of Muslim police officers and staff in the police service," he said.

"This will help us identify issues that may impact on the service's ability to recruit, retain and progress Muslim staff," Mr Beckley, assistant chief constable of Hertfordshire, added.

Delegates to the seminar in Bradford - and one later in the week in Swindon - will be addressed by senior officers from forces in England and Wales.

The conference will also hear from representatives of the National Black Police Association and the Association of Muslim Police.

'Improvements'

Chief inspector Richard Varley of the Association of Muslim Police said he hoped staff would be able to pool ideas and experiences at the seminars.

Mr Varley said his own force, the Metropolitan Police, had addressed a number of the needs of Muslim staff, but he would like to see that extended across all forces.

"I hope the seminars will result in more improvements in the working conditions and environment for Muslim staff.

"For example, I'd like to see prayer facilities at work being pretty more universal as they are at the Met where there's a prayer room at New Scotland Yard," he said.

It is not known exactly how many Muslims work for the police service, as no religious monitoring is carried out.

However, after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report in 1999, all forces across England and Wales were set a 10-year target for ethnic minority recruitment.

Each force was set individual recruitment targets, which reflect the cultural diversity of the community it serves.

But earlier this year the Metropolitan force admitted it was highly improbable it would meet its target of 25% ethnic minority staff by 2009.

FROM THEOPINIONATOR:

Just another example of the back bending pandering that British officials show to muslims. Because muslims believe that they should be buried facing Mecca their graves usually require two cemetary plots to accomodate these wishes. So muslims have been charged for the two plots. Sounds reasonable doesn't it?

Well now paying for what you are using has been seen, by officials (and complaining muslims), as picking on muslims with the purported victims whining that they are being treated like "second class citizens". Thus, even though space in the current Poole cemetaries is very limited, muslim hurt feelings are being placed ahead of and given more consideration than those of the indigenous British families, who have lived for generations in the Poole area, and who may want their loved one buried in the nearby "nearly full" cemetaries.

Muslims are also demanding that they be provided with muslim only cemetaries.

"Majid Yasin, imam and director of Bournemouth Islamic Centre, said: "I am grateful to the Borough of Poole for being helpful in this matter. At least they are considering Muslims."

Truth is - muslims are the ONLY ones being shown consideration.

THE Borough of Poole has scrapped a policy which meant Muslims had to pay more for their graves than other locals.

Muslims believe they should be buried south-east, facing Mecca, which means they may need to take up two plots.

With the council running out of burial space, it was normal practice to charge for both plots.

But Clive Smith, head of leisure services, who is responsible for cemeteries at the council, said the policy had been reviewed.

"With immediate effect in all Poole cemeteries, if two plots are needed in order to meet the needs of personal belief or faith such as in the Muslim example, only one will be charged for," he said.

He added: "We are hoping to deliver a new cemetery serving Poole and Bournemouth and we will be jointly consulting on design in order to completely avoid such issues in the future."

Majid Yasin, imam and director of Bournemouth Islamic Centre, said: "I am grateful to the Borough of Poole for being helpful in this matter. At least they are considering Muslims.

"The council in Bournemouth treats Muslims like second-class citizens and I wish our Islamic centre was in Poole.

"The problem, however, is not whether you charge for one or two plots but whether there should be a separate cemetery for Muslims,like the Jews have their own cemetery.

"There are about 3,000 Muslims in Bournemouth. Just a few weeks ago one of them passed away and we had to send him to Bangladesh to be buried."

Canon Jonathan Martin, Chaplain for Poole, said: "At the point of grief, people should not have to worry about paying more for their grave than others.

"We should be demonstrating hospitality to other faiths.

"It's important that we make people feel welcome in our community."

Michael Edwards, head of public protection at Bournemouth council, said: "We are very considerate of all religious and secular requests concerning burials and cremations and always try to meet specific needs.

"For example, our burial service runs 365 days a year to enable burial within 24 hours in line with some religious requirements.

"Unfortunately space in our existing cemeteries is limited and we do not have a designated area for Muslim burials.

"We do strive to carry out Muslim burials without incurring extra expense for families but occasionally two graves are needed to meet specific requests and our charges reflect this.

"If we are in a position to lay out a new cemetery in the future, we hope to be able to provide sections for different religious groups that better meet their individual requirements."