Efforts to fight terrorism should not be hampered by perpetuating sterotypes against Muslims, said the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), after police in England used the phrase “Allahu Akbar” at an anti-terror training exercise.
Monday’s exercise at a shopping mall in Manchester comprised over 800 volunteers, including a masked man dressed in black who, in a video footage, was seen running and shouting the words before setting off an explosion.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the MCB, told Al Jazeera that “by using this word [in the terror training], Muslims around the world are being associated with terrorists”.
“Muslims use this term in prayers and is a perfectly noble term and we must not allow the terrorists to hijack it,” said Versi.
A British Muslim Labour party candidate, Sadiq Khan, was sworn in as London’s new mayor this month after receiving the largest number of votes of any London mayoral candidate ever.
Some of the fault lines surrounding Khan’s election were visible on social media where many users mocked what they saw as xenophobic responses to Khan’s mayorship.(Al JAzeera)
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/uk-police-face-backlash-allahu-akbar-chant-160510164736712.html
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