Child Q and Abu Ghurayb on the streets of London

*If you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide*

Recently I have fought with myself about how to talk with my youngest son in regards to the Metropolitan Police’s clear, and evident, not just racism but more worrying it’s complete disregard for human dignity.

My normal default position would have been “if you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide” which implies complying with their every request. 

And that seems 100% reasonable. 

However what about when that complicity can become part of the crime, what then?

Child Q’s treatment within a space that she considered “safe” is a stark reminder of how backwards this society really is. 

If you are unaware of what happened to this 15 year old girl and how they stripped away her human dignity then there is a link to an appropriate news article, below.

In true Muslim society no such trespass would ever have occurred, accusations do not carry the weight of judgment, nor

retribution, and never should. 

It is clear that the “Presumption of Innocence” here in this society is a fallacy, and worse still that it is a bigoted one at that, where colour/ race/ and religion all play a part. And where yes if you are white and privileged, belonging to that class, then your innocence will be substantiated and not just presumed. 

It is also clear that the “Presumption of Innocence” as a fallacy actually permeates the whole of the Criminal Justice System. From the Police that presume guilt as a means of making “their case”, to the CPS that fail to hold them to account, to the jurors that focus on fear, and the negativity ingrained in their false morality and outrage. 

A false morality and outrage that takes it cue from our press, who so easily and readily stir the peoples’ emotions. 

At times, in our courts, this outrage is simply that the accused happened to be accused, and that therefore there must be good reason for it. That they cannot justify those reasons past the actual accusation is no matter, for justification is always an easy matter once the thing has been decided. 

Henry Fonda’s “Twelve Angry Men” is a great piece of fiction that even I love to watch and elude to as the way Justice should work. But that has been so clearly proved false by numerous miscarriages of justice where the jurors just get carried away with it all. 

A dumbing down of the process that those students of human interaction know only to well as “group-think” *1 

We know of so many clear, and obvious, miscarriages of justice and therefore how many are there that we can never know. 

The non-descript ones that have destroyed the lives of ordinary people like you and me. 

How many innocents languish in our jails because the Presumption of a Innocence just doesn’t work.

How many their families destroyed. Because the Police presumed guilt, and no one thought to question them or hold them to account. 

It should be replaced by something stronger than a presumption, that should permeate not just the end game where everyone has already really been “presumed” guilty. 

And it should be mirrored in the whole of the investigative processes, where at present any lead, in the investigation, that points to innocence are just plainly and fully ignored. 

It is clear that the Police care not, neither for truth, nor justice but for prosecution. And are governed by the same false morality that stirs the public realm. 

How much the better our way, and our society. 

For in Islamic Legal Theory the one making the accusation is required to bring proof, and the honour of the accused is sacrosanct, so that when it is brought into  disrepute by that accusation, then it cannot be saved except with due punishment. 

Here people are not “presumed” to be innocent, but people are in fact “innocent” and falsely accused unless proven otherwise. 

Indeed, the much, much greater harm is done to the fabric of society by the one that falsely accuses as a means of “revenge”, than when the accusation is well founded and proven true. 

In this society nothing happens to those that make an accusation that is not carried through to full retribution by the Criminal Justice System. 

Indeed the Conservatives, the party of law and order, decreed that they are still victims even when no lawful retribution can be lain at the door of those that they accused. That those they accused are never free, and were never innocent even from the outset. 

Then those accusers are above natural law, and are free to accuse and destroy other people’s lives to their own satisfaction. 

In Child Q’s case her very own teachers falsely accused her of cannabis possession, because of a “smell”. 

Nothing happened to them for they were “within” their rights. And how many others have accused just because of a dislike?

However what is much worse is the way that 15 year old Child Q was treated by the Metropolitan Police, for that shows the depravity of their morals. 

After all dislikes are common currency in a society that is fed them daily. 

That accusation was enough to taint her with guilt, which in all likelihood has lived with her past the accusation being proven false. Precisely because the Metropolitan Police made her compliant, and therefore “willing”, in their abuse of her. 

I will never allow my son to become complicit in a crime done against himself. 

So, I have told him that in such cases our essential human dignity is more important than our sinew, flesh and bones.

It is more important than wanting to be, or appear, “reasonable”. 

This does not mean disobedience, but rather non-compliance as a means of reminding the Police that they have no right to destroy our dignity. 

And that they may break our bones, tear at our sinew and body, out of revenge for not bending to their will, but that we will not comply nor obey them in anything that destroys our essential human dignity. 

And that we will then, after the fact, fight them mentally and without let up until they know who we are- 

That we are Muslim, the followers of Muhammed (saw), who never lost heart, and the fire of the religion of God burns deeply in our veins. 

 And they will find no fear in us for God says in the last verse of S Hajj:

وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِاللَّهِ هُوَ مَوْلَاكُمْ فَنِعْمَ الْمَوْلَىٰ وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيرُ

“and hold fast to Allah, for He is your Maula (Protector of the Believers), what an Excellent Maula (Protector) and what an Excellent Helper!”

And we will teach those that do not know. 

That we, Muslims, are intelligent and fearless, nor rash, neither will we grieve. 

END 

*1 where the IQ of the collective has been shown to drop down below the floor of the lowest individual IQ in the group.