UK orders inquiry into bugging of Muslim MP

U.K. Justice Secretary Jack Straw ordered an immediate inquiry on Sunday into allegations that anti-terrorist police secretly bugged a Muslim MP during private conversations with a constituent in prison.

The Sunday Times reported that Sadiq Khan, a government whip and Labour MP for Tooting, was bugged twice while meeting the prisoner, who was awaiting deportation to the United States to face terrorism charges.

Khan's constituent, Babar Ahmad, was accused of running websites supporting terrorism and raising funds for Muslim militants in Chechnya and Afghanistan, and with urging Muslims to fight a 'holy war.'

He has not been charged in Britain with any offence.

The electronic listening device was hidden in a table at Woodhill prison and picked up conversations between the two men in 2005 and 2006 about the latest developments in the U.S. extradition request, the newspaper said.

The Sunday Times claimed that at least six tables in the visiting room had been fitted with listening equipment, and the anti-terrorist squad had specifically requested that Khan be bugged when visiting Ahmad.

Scotland Yard said it was not prepared to discuss the allegation.

Police have been forbidden to eavesdrop on politicians since a bugging scandal involving Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson's government.

"I have ordered an immediate inquiry into this matter," Straw said in a statement. "Though I have no knowledge of the facts in this case, it is completely unacceptable for an interview conducted by an MP on a constituency matter -- or on any other issue -- to be recorded."

Muslim groups in Britain reacted with anger to the reports.

"Today's revelations are simply appalling and raise a whole range of vital issues to do with confidentiality and how to hold to account the improper behavior of senior police officers," Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said in a statement.

"This kind of behavior cannot but do immense damage to the level of trust between Muslim communities and the police."

Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization Britain threatened to ban after the 2005 attacks on London, said the allegation was a sign of increasingly draconian security measures.

"Is it any surprise that many Muslims believe Britain is becoming a police state for our community?" it said in a statement.

Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis said he had alerted Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the bugging incident last year but had not received a reply. He had not named the MP in the letter dated December 11, 2007.

Downing Street said it had no record of the letter despite a detailed check.

Khan, a former human rights lawyer and parliamentary private secretary to Straw, welcomed the inquiry. "They are at the moment just allegations," he told BBC1's Andrew Marr show.

"I'm obviously keen ... to find out whether the allegations are true because the implications are clearly quite serious."

He said the meetings were ordinary and routine.

Terror Phrasebook

Meanwhile, British ministries have been advised on how to communicate with Muslim communities without threatening or alienating them with a new phrasebook, The Guardian reported on Monday.

The guide advises civil servants not to use terms such as "Jihadi" or "fundamentalist" because they suggest there is "an explicit link between Islam and terrorism."

It suggests terms such as "criminal, murderer, thug" instead.

Citing a copy of the phrasebook, aimed at improving government communication and preventing misunderstandings, the newspaper said the guide instructed civil servants to "avoid implying that specific communities are to blame" for extremist activities.

"This is not about political correctness, but effectiveness -- evidence shows that people stop listening if they think you are attacking them," the guide, compiled by the Home Office (interior ministry), reads.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the guide had been forwarded to "key delivery partners", such as police chief constables, local authorities and government departments in the last few weeks.