RACE laws must be overhauled to protect national security and fight terrorism, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality will say today.

Trevor Phillips will claim that positive discrimination should be used to recruit more Muslims to the police and security forces. In a speech at the Social Policy Forum, Mr Phillips will claim that Muslim officers are vital to the security of Britain because they understand Islamic culture and can carry out covert surveillance without being compromised.

Current legislation bans positive discrimination and a number of police forces that have tried to boost the number of officers from ethnic minorities have fallen foul of the law.

Mr Phillips will call for a national debate about whether positive discrimination is needed, not just to address the woefully low numbers of Muslims in the police and security forces but also to help in the fight against terrorism. “We have to debate such measures if we are going to avoid the spectre of a mainly white security and justice apparatus policing increasingly aggrieved and hostile black and Asian communities,” he will say.

Referring to the Forest Gate raid, Mr Phillips will say such operations drive a wedge between the police and Asians. “Every time an operation goes wrong it further alienates communities who want to help in the fight against terrorism.”

Yousaf Bhailok of the Muslim Council of Britain welcomed calls for positive discrimination. “Over recent years there’s been a lot of campaigns to make the police force more attractive as a career for Muslims. But that has not translated into actual jobs.”

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