Dirty tactics of the MI5 - Sending the wrong message to British Muslim youths by Mohamed Nur

Mohamed Nur claims he was threatened by the MI5 after an agent gained access to his house by posing as a postman. He was told to work for them as an informant, or risk a life of detention, harassment and travel restrictions. Mohamed tells Crimestoppers about how this experience has led him to question the years he has spent helping disadvantaged young people to leave gangs and strive for better futures. Furthermore, he argues, how can it can be justified that the Security Service used dirty tactics to try to recruit the same people who discourage youths from taking the law into their own hands? [June 2009]

We're told that we live in a free and democratic society. That we're equal citizens and that the law is equally applied. That stop-and-search doesn't discriminate and that the security services are our people. For those of us from BME communities and especially those that are also British Muslims, those statements seem to get ever further from the truth year on year. With each passing year increasingly discriminatory laws are passed unchallenged and all of our civil liberties further undermined.

When six of us were harassed and blackmailed into working for the MI5, we certainly didn't feel like equal citizens. We've all been stopped and searched many times over the years. In fact, once I was even stopped outside my own house. We've always wanted to believe that there was ‘equal' citizenship for everyone. Most of us had started to almost believe in a future of equality during the last ten years we've been in Kentish Town Community Organisation (KTCO) before these incidents started.

Helping disadvantaged young people

We come from the street. We work with young people from the same streets. Some of us come from the gangs that we try and get these young people out of. We've been running gang tensions, drugs prevention and rehabilitation workshops for years. Telling young people about the importance of education and making something of their lives. Showing them a way other than crime and mentoring young people to gain self-confidence so that they can see a positive future.

Young people say to us: “We used to get hassled when we were in gangs and getting up to no good, and now that we're straight, we're getting hassled again.”

It's a no win situation.

MI5 - Dirty tactics

These people targeted us. They came after us as if we were criminals. They hassled us and threatened our families. They went after Aydarus, one of our Junior Youth Leaders, by phoning him and congratulating him on the birth of his daughter when his wife was still only seven months pregnant. Aydarus and his wife had asked the hospital not to tell them the sex of their child. They had some of us interrogated by foreign intelligence agencies. They said they'd tell everyone we were terrorists if we didn't work for them.

We're all very angry.

Us and them

But we had somewhere to go to. We had people we could talk to. We've been through youth leadership programmes for years, so even when we were angry it was measured and we channelled it into trying to get them off our backs. We went to our directors, the local police and our MP. We had people we trusted and we knew they wouldn't let it go and that they would look out for us. That's also what Crimestoppers is all about - someone to go to 24/7 and trust that they will take care of the information you give them while protecting you and your identity.

What about the dozens and maybe hundreds of people in our country who don't have anyone to go to? The security services are supposed to be protecting us, not targeting us. Why us? Are we the soft target that the government doesn't care about because we live in council estates and don't have houses in Westminster that are our second homes? We've spent years working with the local police, including conducting joint patrols when gang tensions have been high in Camden. We've tried hard to work with young people to decrease the feeling of ‘us and them' when it comes to law enforcement.

Well, the MI5 have managed to make us wonder whether we really have been wasting our time. And if we, as youth leaders, feel the way we do, can you imagine what the young people on the street think?

Give the youth hope in our system

That's why we went to the media. We wanted everyone to know that not only were we being harassed but that we weren't afraid any more. That we had had enough and that when we got angry, we would use every available democratic tool to go back after the very people who came after us. They had done the criminal stuff, not us. It was time everyone found out what they did. It isn't just some MPs who think they're above the law. But members of the security service proved to us that they thought so too. We wanted to send a message to the youth that firstly you don't have to put up with this sort of behaviour, and that actually, there are legitimate ways to get your rights that can make a difference. We wanted the youth to have hope in our system.

Robert Verkaik from The Independent newspaper listened to what we had to say and the Independent recognised it was important enough to put on the front page of the paper. We hope that sends out a clear signal. These tactics don't work and the security service, accountable we hope to the government, needs to change its policy. They used dirty tactics to try to recruit the same people who discourage youth from taking the law into their own hands. The same people they should have on side. Something has gone wrong.

Build trust not fear in local communities

It's by working with local communities and youth workers in a transparent way, one that is built on trust and not fear, that they'll get any credible information. They've tried to ruin our lives but we rose above their threats and took it back to them. I really hope they don't ruin anyone else's life. I'm booked to play in a football tournament in Sweden in July. I really hope there are no more problems for any of us when we travel. There's always this thing in the back of our minds that they might get some foreign intelligence service to hassle or even rendition us. That is how bad it's become. Right now, we really don't have any trust in these people. I hope this can change one day.

Mohamed Nur is a Senior Youth Leader with Kentish Town Community Organisation (KTCO) and has been working with disadvantaged young people for almost 10 years in Camden and Kentish Town.

Read the article 'MI5 accused of blackmailing British Muslims'.