SOME innocent Scottish Muslims have been questioned by terror police more than 15 times, campaigners against racial profiling at airports claimed last night.
Asians, usually men, say they are being stopped almost every time they fly, regardless of where they are going.
The claims were made by a group of prominent young Scottish Muslims, including Nationalist MSP Humza Yousaf and human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, as they set up a new Independent Advisory Group on the issue.
Mr Yousaf said: “I was astonished that people claimed to have been stopped at Glasgow airports more than 15 times.”
Mr Anwar said: “Thousands upon thousands of innocent Muslims and other minorities are being harassed and targeted by police every time they go to the airport.”
The Herald yesterday reported some campaigners saying that Muslims are continuing their long-standing boycott of Glasgow Airport, the scene of Scotland’s only major Islamic terror incident and home to what they believe are the most jittery terror police.
Law enforcement sources claim they have stopped asking some of the questions Muslims found most offensive, such as whether they knew Osama Bin Laden.
Britain’s overall terror threat was this week reduced to “substantial” --meaning an attack was a strong possibility rather than a probability.
Assistant Chief Constable Colin McCashey, Scotland’s counter-terrorism co-ordinator, stressed the public would be unlikely to notice any difference in the way police behaved.
A Glasgow-based Muslim has urged ethnic minorities to accept the need for extra security checks in the wake of the Glasgow airport bombing in 2007. HeraldScotland blogger HAMIRA KHAN also accuses those "playing the race card" of deliberately creating fear and tension between communities. Read her powerful blog here
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