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UK uses "Orwellian" tactics on Muslims

Five British Muslim men accused the United Kingdom's security services of "blatant
blackmail" and threatening them with jail if they did not agree to work as informants, press
reports said Thursday, sparking outrage and concern over Islamophobia.

The community workers said they were given a choice of working for MI5, the U.K.'s counter-
intelligence and security agency, or face detention and harassment at home and
internationally, Britain's Independent reported.

Although none of the men have ever been arrested or charged with terrorism-related offenses they
all claim to have been harrassed, threatened and intimidated by the security services at one point.

Two of the men, Mohamed Nur and Mohamed Aden, said they were approached by police officers
disguised as postmen, who came to their homes to tell them if they did not help the security
services they would be considered terrorism suspects.

Nur, 25, a community youth worker, said he was threatened after an agent infiltrated his home
accompanied by a police officer dressed as a postman.

"The MI5 agent 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 paper quoted him as saying.

Adydarus Elmi, a 25-year-old cinema worker, said an agent named Katherine called him at 7 a.m. and
tried to intimidate him by congratulating him on the birth of his baby girl, although his wife was
still seven months pregnant.

"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,'" the paper quoted
Elmi as saying.

Hashi said he was then arrested at Djibouti airport on the orders of MI5 and held for 16
hours. Hashi said he was told he would be put on a list of terror suspects unless he was willing
to work as an informant and trap his friends by encouraging them to talk about jihad.

"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,'" Hashi told the paper.

www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/05/21/73467.html

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