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Cops thought Sikh leader was Osama Bin Laden

1/ 1/2003

A LEADING race equality officer described an incident from his own life to illustrate how much race relations had improved in Britain.

Kurshid Ahmed, acting deputy chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality told a Tameside meeting that as a 19-year-old student he became the first victim of tougher immigration laws passed in 1971. He was returning home to the UK after a holiday in Paris with two white friends.

He told the Tameside Racial Equality Council: "At the passport control my white friends were allowed through but an officer flung my passport to the floor and told me to pick it up. I was detained overnight for deportation as an illegal immigrant even though I had lived in England since aged 11."

But he said there were still huge bias and prejudice against ethnic minorities. He used a story which appeared in a Midland newspaper to illustrate these shortcomings.

He said: "A police superintendent visited a Sikh household and asked why they had a picture of Osama Bin Laden in their front window. In fact, it was a picture of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith."

He added: "Following the tragic events of September 11, the white community is terrified of Muslims, while British Muslims are terrified of the British National Party and Combat 18. We need to make strenuous efforts to bring the community together and take the initiative back from the extremists. That is the biggest challenge we have."

Tameside Racial Equality Council has recently appointed three legal action officers, Gary Collins, Shoaib Ahmed and Mike Whitely. They can be contacted on 0161 343 3399.