Muslim Met chief gets 'hate mail'

Mr Ghaffur made the speech earlier this month

The Metropolitan Police's assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur says he has received hate mail after speaking out over bigotry toward Muslims.

Mr Ghaffur said he had got "much correspondence", some of it "racist in nature" after a speech this month.

Speaking at the National Black Police Association conference on 7 August, he said new anti-terror laws indirectly discriminated against Muslims.

He added Islamophobia created "angry" young people vulnerable to extremism.

It is a shame that some people have been upset by the selective reporting of what was a wide-ranging speech Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur

Mr Ghaffur had also said the recent Stockwell shooting last year and the Forest Gate counter-terror raid in June had harmed the "confidence and trust" minority communities had in the police service.

He said: "As a police officer with many years service I would never want to stop police officers from doing their jobs in the difficult fight against terrorism and crime.

"It is a shame that some people have been upset by the selective reporting of what was a wide-ranging speech."

He said the speech had covered a range of issues, "ranging from terrorism, the impact of policing on our new communities, issues of recruitment and retention within the service", as well as anti-terrorism laws.

He said: "I talked about the real threats that we face and the challenges of investigating those offences, plus the dangers of stereotyping and stigmatising communities, but also how we cannot fight crime and terrorism without the support of the communities."

Mr Ghaffur is the UK's most senior police officer from an Asian background.