Birmingham terror camera's to be switched off and covered up after pressure from Muslims

\ Left: Sparkbrook residents. Although mostly a Pakistani area, Somali's have arrived in large numbers in recent years.

The Muslim lobby in Birmingham seems to have won a victory by getting new camera's to be disabled and covered up. Even though there have been 11 convictions for terrorist-related activity in Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath since 2007.

The very first Al Qaeda terrorist arrested in the UK was Moinul Abedin, from Sparkbrook, convicted of bomb making and jailed for 20 years in 2002.

In spite of these facts, muslim councilors such as Salma Yaqoob and Ayoub Khan have been joined by Labour's Roger Godsiff (Hall Green,) in condemning the camera's.

The Birmingham Labour Party is virtually a Muslim mouthpiece with a few white candidates who have sold out the indigenous population.

Roger Godsiff meets with Syrian President Bashir al Assad on the recent visit to Syria organised by the Syrian Society April 2009





The BBC reports A surveillance operation in parts of Birmingham with large Muslim populations has been halted after it was revealed the move was linked to counter terrorism.

Some out of 218 cameras, mainly in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts, will be covered with bags.

They were part of the Project Champion scheme, paid for from a Home Office counter terrorism fund.

But officials behind the project said it would have deterred various crimes.

Steve Jolly, one of those who first began campaigning about the cameras, said people had been "misled".

He said: "Now the truth is out, there's a lot of anger.

"Certain communities have been ring-fenced and saturated with cameras, making it impossible for you to get in or out without being tracked.

"What's happening here is the government is spying on its citizens covertly in some cases, without their knowledge or consent, and it's a gross invasion of privacy and civil liberties."

Ayoub Khan, from the council, said the public's views were "important"

Mr Jolly described the latest developments as "a victory" and "a start" but added: "It's not the conclusion, though.

"The cameras are already in now. There's going to be a lot of reluctance to have them taken away."

A total of 218 cameras - some of them hidden - were put up in various locations across the areas.

Of those, 106 were Automatic Number Plate Recognition devices which were able to record car registrations as they moved around the areas.

In a statement in April, the Safer Birmingham Project (SBP) said it had received £3m from the Home Office to improve community safety and reduce crime in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook wards. Read more