{"id":623990,"date":"2026-09-22T15:34:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/623990\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:34:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:34:30","slug":"muslim-police-associations-accused-of-crossing-impartiality-line-in-uk-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/623990\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim police associations accused of crossing impartiality line in UK report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some Muslim staff associations within British policing may be coming into conflict with the principle of police<\/a> impartiality, a new report by Policy Exchange revealed on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMixed Messages: Police Impartiality & the National Association of Muslim Police\u201d examines the activities of the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) and local force-level Muslim Police Associations, finding examples of the organizations becoming involved in highly contentious policy issues and platforming individuals and organizations with \u201cquestionable backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NAMP was established in 2007 at an event held at the British Transport Police headquarters to act as \u201can umbrella organization [sic] for local Associations of Muslim Police.\u201d By 2021, NAMP claimed to have 1,000 members in police forces across the country. Of the 43 \u201cHome Office\u201d forces of England and Wales, 20 police forces (43.5%) have a local Muslim Police Association.<\/p>\n

A NAMP policy paper, titled \u201cFrom Past Prejudices to Present Policies: Confronting anti-Muslim hatred and Promoting Human Rights,\u201d dated July 20, 2025, was recently brought to public attention for describing Zionism as \u201cone of the manifestations of anti-Muslim hatred, stripping Muslims of their humanity\u201d and referring to the IDF as one of a number of \u201cZionist terrorist groups<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper also defended Hamas against what it described as \u201calarming and unverified stories about acts of violence\u201d committed during and after the attacks of October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

\"AA woman draped in an Israeli flag stands next to police officers as she joins members of the Jewish community outside BBC Broadcasting House to demonstrate against the BBC’s ongoing refusal to label Hamas as terrorists, in London, England, October 16, 2023; file photo. (credit: CARL COURT\/GETTY IMAGES)<\/p>\n

This policy paper was written by Khaldoun Kabbani, who was listed as the chair of the Scottish Police Muslim Association and vice president of the NAMP.<\/p>\n

NAMP removes controversial policy paper after JLC intervention<\/p>\n

Following intervention by the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), NAMP removed the paper from its website and issued a statement asserting that it did not support terrorism and that the document did not represent its views, despite the fact that the paper carried NAMP\u2019s logo, appeared on its website, and was written by its VP.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the NAMP website is a 2023 press release claiming that \u201cusing terms such as \u2018Islamist\u2019 reinforces Islamophobia, by creating a higher risk of extreme right-wing radicalization, it also re-enforces a narrative that makes an association between Islam and terrorism, creating a greater risk of radicalization amongst vulnerable Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the recent NAMP Annual General Meeting 2026, held at Greater Manchester Police, attendees heard from speaker Majid Iqbal of the Islamophobia Response Unit.<\/p>\n

Iqbal is known for an interview he gave in July 2024 after a violent incident at Manchester Airport where police officers clashed with two men attempting arrest. Iqbal criticized the \u201cunjustifiable action of the police, the violent actions of the police.\u201d The video circulated of the incident showed only the police response to the two men, but not what preceded it: passenger Mohammed Fahir Amaaz assaulting another passenger and then breaking a police officer\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n

Policy Exchange said Iqbal\u2019s presence at NAMP\u2019s Annual General Meeting \u201craises several questions about NAMP\u2019s approach and decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, how committed is NAMP to contributing to the confidence of the wider public in policing when they are willing to provide a platform to an individual \u2013 Mr. Iqbal \u2013 who made claims that the police<\/a> acted in a way which was \u2018violent\u2019 and \u2018unjustifiable\u2019 following the circulation of clipped social media footage which did not provide the full context of the incident at Manchester Airport?\u201d the paper asks.<\/p>\n

Policy Exchange examines conduct of Hasson Shigdar<\/p>\n

The report also discusses the activities of Superintendent Hasson Shigdar, a senior West Midlands Police officer and vice-chair of the West Midlands Association of Muslim Police.<\/p>\n

It argues that Shigdar, who is also head of Prevent for the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, has shared material online from organizations with questionable history and associations. For example, he tweeted his support for Green Lane Mosque, which had its proposed government funding suspended in 2023 after accusations emerged of hate speech and extremism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf policing is to reassure the public that impartiality is not merely a commitment which police chiefs and police officers consider to be an anachronism, they \u2013 and government \u2013 must act decisively to regulate this arena, which has been allowed to become an ungoverned space for activists,\u201d Policy Exchange said.<\/p>\n

It encouraged the Home Secretary to bring forward new legislation \u2013 a \u201cPolice Impartiality Act\u201d \u2013 to set out the impartiality requirements for all Chief Constables, police forces, and policing related bodies,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recommendations for greater rigor in the governance and operation of Police Staff networks are a key step in maintaining impartiality,\u201d said Michael Stewart, former national security senior practitioner. \u201cSenior officers must be prepared to challenge the views of Staff Networks and their members when those views are unbalanced or too narrowly focused on a particular group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Staff Networks in policing publicly involve themselves in matters of policy, which are rightly the preserve of elected governments and ministers, those networks and their leaders are going way over the line,\u201d said Chris Donaldson, former police inspector and firearms commander with the Metropolitan Police<\/a> and founding member of the National Black Police Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some Muslim staff associations within British policing may be coming into conflict with the principle of police impartiality,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5355,42,1294,43,102,40,38,41,39,1299],"class_list":["post-623990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-britain","tag-headlines","tag-muslims","tag-news","tag-police","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}