Deportation of Afghan Couple Captured from Raided Mosque Delayed
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It
was like a military operation. It was as though they were
arresting murderers, witness
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LONDON,
July 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The two Afghan refugees
who were taken from a mosque after raiding it, had their deportation
delayed Friday, July 26, while a British court considers their case.
British police used a battering-ram to raid the mosque and arrest them
Thursday, July 25.
On
Thursday, police forced their way through a steel door adjoining the
main prayer area of the Ghausia Jamia Mosque near Stourbridge, central
England, after Muslim elders had finished their early morning worship,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Farid
and Feriba Ahmadi had been sheltering inside for 28 days, according to
campaigners who have lobbied for them to be allowed to remain in
Britain.
Officials
said the pair were detained while preparations were made to deport
them to Germany, where their asylum claim was being processed before
they came to Britain.
However,
a Home Office spokesman told BBC News Online that supporters of Mr.
and Mrs. Ahmadi have won a court injunction while they seek a judicial
review on the deportation decision.
Thursday
afternoon, a group of young Asians protested outside the Lye police
station about the raid.
"I
am rather shocked by the heavy-handedness of how immigration deal with
this type of situation," Soraya Walton said.
"The
police were wearing flak jackets. It was incredible. It was as though
they were arresting murderers," fellow campaigner Paul Rowlands
added.
Zaki
Badawi, chairman of the Imams and Mosques Council of the United
Kingdom, said: "We recognize mosques as a safe haven, but at the
same time we expect officials who are running them to recognize the
law.
"The
authorities should have negotiated with the officials of the mosque to
have surrendered them quietly."
A
police spokeswoman said that officers wore coverings over their
footwear, and female officers wore head coverings as a mark of respect
to the Muslim religion.
A
Home Office spokesman said police can enter a mosque, church or other
places of worship if they have a search warrant and have reasonable
grounds to believe an arrestable offence has been committed, BBC said.
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Afghan
couple took refuge inside the mosque
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Ahmadi,
33, and his wife, 24, are thought to be in a detention center at
Heathrow Airport. Their children Hadia, six, and, Seear, four, are in
hiding with friends of the family.
The
police action has been criticized by Dr. Ghayasuddin Siqqiqui, leader
of the self-styled Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, BBC said.
"I
don't think the police would have gone in wearing riot gear if these
people had been taking refuge in a church or chapel," he said.
"How
did they dare to enter a place of worship in that kind of gear? This
was very inhumane and insensitive.
"If
they wanted to arrest these people they could have done so in a
simple, quiet way, after seeking the co-operation of the mosque
committee and imam."
"I
think very badly of this morning - the way they caught them and broke
the door of the mosque,” Hajikhadim Hussein, an elder at the mosque,
said.
"If
they were coming and talking with the mosque committee, maybe we could
have found some way,” he added.
According
to BBC, the Ahmadi family have been living in Lye near Stourbridge for
the past year after fleeing the former Taliban regime. They were
smuggled illegally into the U.K. from Germany on the back of a lorry
after leaving Afghanistan.
The
family does not want to return to Germany because it says it suffered
racial abuse there.
Conservative
councilor for Lye and Wollescote, Abdul Qadus, said he was
"disgusted" at the way the Home Office and the police had
handled the situation.
"These
people were not murderers. There were not armed robbers in there,”
he told BBC.
"I
am not saying that they were not legally entitled to enter the
building, but there is no justification for causing damage to a
religious place.
"I
am absolutely disgusted with this situation. "We Muslim
people are treated like dirt now since 11 September,” he added.
Rowlands,
one of six local people present during the incident, also criticized
the way the operation was conducted.
"It
was completely compassionless," he said.
"It
was like a military operation. It was as though they were arresting
murderers. We didn't dream they would batter the door down to a place
of sanctuary."
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