"We have made it clear that we disagreed totally with the conclusions ... the whole thing needs to be researched in a much more comprehensive way," said Rhoden.

CAIRO – A Metropolitan police report claiming that Muslim officers in the UK were more likely to become corrupt than white officers drew diatribe Saturday, June 10, from different cross sections in society with British Muslim figures calling it "racist" and "shortsighted."

"We are gravely concerned about its contents and the message it sends to recruits and potential recruits," Superintendent Dal Babu, chairman of the Association of Muslim Officers, told the Guardian Saturday, June 10.

He said the report, commissioned by the Directorate of Professional Standards, had "racist" undertones.

The report, which was leaked to the Guardian, said that Muslim officers were more likely to become corrupt than white officers due to their cultural and family backgrounds.

"Asian officers and in particular Pakistani Muslim officers are under greater pressure from the family, the extended family ... and their community against that of their white colleagues to engage in activity that might lead to misconduct or criminality."

It said that Pakistanis were living in a cash culture in which family assistance was a duty and in an environment in which large amounts of money are loaned between relatives and friends.

The report, which was written by an Asian detective chief inspector, suggested anti-corruption training for Asian officers.

The document comes amid strained ties between the UK police and the Muslim minority following the arrest of two British Muslims on claims of involvement in a biological terror plot.

The two brothers, Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23 and Abul Koyair, 20, were released without charge on Friday, June 9, which raised questions about the quality of UK intelligence.

British police have already endured almost a year of harsh criticism, including accusations of a cover-up since officers gunned down an unarmed Brazilian on a subway train suspecting him to be a suicide bomber.

Shortsighted

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the main Muslim umbrella body in Britain, blasted the report as "shortsighted."

Ahmanrahman Jafar, vice-chairman of the MCB's legal affairs committee, said it was shortsighted of the Met to be alienating its Muslim officers at such a sensitive time.

"We've got about 1,000 wrongful anti-terrorist arrests since 9/11 and I believe that if Muslim officers were involved in looking through that intelligence and understanding the context, we would have far greater efficiency in the police force and a far greater prosecution rate," he said.

The leaked report has also drawn fire from a British Muslim officer, who refused to be identified.

"It is like saying black officers are more likely to be muggers," he told the Guardian.

"Today it is Muslim officers who are treated as the Uncle Toms. How can they say to the Muslim community 'trust us', when they don't even trust their own Muslim officers."

There are 300 Muslim officers in the 31,000-strong Metropolitan police.

George Rhoden, chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, also hit out at the report.

"We have made it clear that we disagreed totally with the conclusions ... the whole thing needs to be researched in a much more comprehensive way."

A 2004 Metropolitan report, obtained by the BBC, showed that found white officers tended to refer complaints against officers of ethnic backgrounds upwards rather than use their initiative to resolve the matter.

It further found that black and Asian officers felt some specialist sections remained closed to them.