A PROTESTER who dressed as a suicide bomber during a demonstration against the Muhammad cartoon was back in prison last night for breaking the terms of his early release.
Omar Khayam, a convicted drug dealer, was sent to Bedford prison after the Home Office ordered his return to jail.
Khayam, 22, was arrested by Bedfordshire police for the alleged breach of the terms of his parole after being pictured dressed as a suicide bomber at a London demonstration at the weekend.
He was released on parole last summer, halfway through a 5½-year jail term for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and possessing heroin with intent to supply. One of the terms of his parole from Woodhill highsecurity jail in Milton Keynes was that he must be of “good behaviour”.
A Home Office spokeswoman refused to comment on Khayam’s case, but said: “If an offender is in the community on licence and his behaviour gives cause for concern, he is liable to be recalled back to prison. Licence requirements include good behaviour. Intimidating or provocative behaviour, or failing to recognise the impact of your behaviour on others, could breach this.”
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However, some officials have questioned whether dressing as a suicide bomber constitutes a breach of a commitment to be of good behaviour.
Khayam, from Bedford, will be given the reason for his recall and will have the opportunity to make representation to the Parole Board, which will review the Home Office decision. He will be released automatically from jail in August 2007.
Khayam was photographed wearing an imitation suicide bomber’s outfit during a protest against caricatures satirising the Prophet of Islam.
He offered an apology for his actions on Monday but by then the Home Office was moving to seek his recall to prison.
The chairman of his local mosque in Bedford said yesterday that Khayam was a “bit of an idiot” but would be welcomed back.
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Asif Nadim, of the Jameh Masjid Gulshan-e-Baghbad mosque, added: “It’s been blown out of all proportion. Some of the papers have come up with his drugs offence but he was 16 at the time.
“He was in that kind of environment at college and it was something he got caught up in. The media are trying to condemn a normal young guy. He realises what he has done and now he has to pay for it.”
Khayam’s father, a retired school teacher, and mother are now divorced, according to Muhammad Khan, a family friend and local councillor. Both now live in Pakistan, he added. After criticism that the police failed to arrest any demonstrators on Saturday, Tony Blair said yesterday: “It is very important for our overall good relations in this country that people understand there’s no political correctness that should keep the police from taking whatever action they think is necessary and that is my position 100 per cent.”
But Islamic militants warned police not to arrest any more protesters who took part in rallies outside the Danish Embassy last week or risk provoking violence on the streets among young Muslims.
Anjem Choudray, the former leader in Britain of the radical al-Muhajiroun group, condemned the jailing of Khayam as “victimisation” of British Muslims.
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He said that further arrests “will only add to the deteriorating relationship between Muslims and the British public”.
He added. “Police must realise that Muslim feeling will come out strongly when our honour is offended.”
He also claimed that the convicted drug dealer was being used as a scapegoat and said that his arrest was just to appease Downing Street’s demand for the police to look tough.
The special unit set up at Scotland Yard to review the behaviour of demonstrators last week is not expected to move against any of them in the next few days. Senior officers accept that there is growing pressure from politicians and the public to take action against those brandishing placards which supported the July 7 bombers.
But the review team have been told to take their time studying video footage and questioning some of the protest leaders before sending any recommendations to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide on charges.
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Thousands of moderate Muslims are expected to attend a rally in Trafalgar Square in London on Saturday afternoon to protest at the cartoons and the response of Islamic extremists.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that mainstream British Muslims were “deeply hurt” by the cartoons and the “disgraceful actions of a tiny group of extremists”.