UK Secret Service Blackmails British Muslims
Speaking to The Independent, a group of Muslim men said that they had been harassed at airports while traveling abroad and then interrogated by MI5 on being sent back to the UK. MI5 agents were then said to have offered to remove travel restrictions on the men in return for their co-operation. When the men refused, they started receiving threatening phone calls.
Adydarus Elmi, a 25-year-old cinema worker from north London, told the newspaper that he had received a phone call by one agent who gave her name as Katherine to congratulate his on the birth of his daughter while his wife was still seven months pregnant, even though he himself did not know the sex of his unborn child.
"Katherine tried to threaten me by saying, and it still runs through my mind now: 'Remember, this won't be the last time we ever meet.' And then during our last conversation she explained: 'If you do not want anything to happen to your family you will co-operate,'" Elmi said.
Another young Muslim man by the name of Madhi Hashi, 19, was arrested in Djibouti upon the request of the MI5 and told he would be put on a list of terror suspects unless he spied on his friends and encouraged them to talk about jihad. Before boarding the flight to go visit his sick grandmother, he said he was approached by two plainclothes agents at London's Gatwick airport who warned that whatever happened to him outside the UK was not their responsibility.
When he was sent back to London, he came across the same agents who told him he was a terror suspect and would remain so unless he worked for the secret services. Speaking about the event to The Independent, Hashi said: "I told him 'This is blatant blackmail'; he said 'No, it's just proving your innocence. By co-operating with us we know you're not guilty.'
Meanwhile, Muhammad Nur and Mohamed Aden, both 25, said agents had gained access to their home posing as postmen, who likewise threatened to place travel restrictions on them. Mr Nur quoted the agent, who said: "Mohamed, if you do not work for us we will tell any foreign country you try to travel to that you are a suspected terrorist."
The group, who are all community workers and are British citizens who originate from Somalia, have never in the past been arrested over links to terrorism. They all complained to the police and their local MP before going to the media.
Source: World Bulletin
