The FSU is supporting a former hate crime scrutiny panel chair after she was sacked by police for calling the threat from Islamism the "elephant in the room"

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

5 June 2026

The chair of Bradford's policing scrutiny panel was sacked by West Yorkshire Police after she complained that officers were ignoring the "elephant in the room" of Islamist extremism in the wake of last October's antisemitic terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

Following the attack, the woman — whom we will call "Elaine" to protect her identity — attended an emergency meeting with officers. She has said that the meeting appeared to focus more on the sensitivities of the Muslim community than on addressing the risk to the Jewish community.

Elaine has accused West Yorkshire Police of seeking to appease Muslims — including Muslim officers and community leaders — rather than focusing on the threat to the Jewish community.

Speaking to Allison Pearson about the meeting, Elaine said: "I could not believe what I was hearing."

She added: "I was taking part in this emergency Teams meeting hosted by West Yorkshire Police, the day after the horrific attack on the synagogue. It was chaired by a white female inspector. She was very fair, very strict and didn't take any nonsense, but she was under constant pressure from the Muslim men in the meeting...

"The whole meeting wasn't about what it should have been about. [It should have been about], 'How can we protect the Bradford synagogue and the Jewish population?' " Elaine insisted that much of what was discussed "[was about], 'We Muslims need protecting because we are now at risk of anti-Muslim reprisals.' "

The retired academic, who is in her 60s, was informed of her sacking via a letter stating it was the result of "divisive and inflammatory" comments that had prompted complaints from Muslim officers who had attended the meeting.

She said the letter "sounded like a threat" because the senior officer who had written it implied that some complainants had been demanding her personal details, and that consideration had been given as to whether the hate crime adviser had herself committed a hate crime.

Elaine is now seeking a formal apology from the West Yorkshire Chief Constable. She said she believed the letter had been written "for the Muslim men who complained to get him to shut me up — and he did as they asked".

This followed a separate incident in which Elaine, in her capacity as chair of the panel, reviewed a case in which a member of the public had telephoned the police helpline and ranted to Muslim officers about the Prophet Mohammed marrying a nine-year-old child, calling him a "paedophile". The individual was initially charged with a hate crime.

In reviewing the case, Elaine was reminded of the Koran-burner case in which the Free Speech Union successfully intervened. She acknowledged that what the man had said was "deeply unpleasant… but I didn't think it was criminal", adding: "In Britain, you are allowed to criticise a religion — it's free speech, isn't it?"

Elaine arranged a meeting with Chief Superintendent Richard Padwell and raised her concerns. Padwell informed her that a senior legal panel had agreed that the comments about the Prophet Mohammed were not criminal, and that the individual's charge had been downgraded to a non-crime hate incident (NCHI).

Muslim officers were reportedly furious at this outcome and began pushing for her removal from the post.

An email to a senior officer from a West Yorkshire Police address, obtained via a Subject Access Request (SAR), read: "The views and opinions of the scrutiny panel chair are incredibly concerning and do not line [sic] with the values of West Yorkshire Police. I believe the only course of action is to remove her as chair and from the scrutiny panel."

Another email sent from a West Yorkshire Police address read: "To discuss tomorrow — [the chair] seems to think the Prophet married a 9-year-old and it's ok to call him a paedophile?"

At the emergency meeting following the attack on the synagogue, Elaine proposed an open discussion about the threat from Islamist terrorists. She was subsequently informed that she had been removed from her role as member and chair of the scrutiny panel for failing to show impartiality.

Several complaints from West Yorkshire Police email addresses were sent after the meeting. One read: "I don't know the lady in question… some of the wording used in the meeting today, I noted in my daybook: 'there is one community that this is coming from', 'just say it how it is, we are not stupid'. It appeared she was insinuating that the hate towards the Jewish community was from the Muslim community only and that Muslims — 2 billion or so worldwide — themselves posed a threat."

Another complaint read: "A lady… made some absurd comments which I believe to be outright hate and racism. [She] mentioned that we need to address the 'elephant' in the room, referring to the Muslim community. [She] mentioned that we should say things as they are, as we all know which community is responsible for the attacks in Manchester, again referring to the Muslim community."

A third complaint said of Elaine: "[She] made a number of comments that I found deeply troubling… I found her remarks highly inappropriate and concerning."

West Yorkshire Police is no stranger to accusations of imbalance in the way it applies policing across different communities. In 2025, the force temporarily blocked applications from white British candidates in an effort to boost diversity. It is also the same force that a government-commissioned report found had "totally and utterly failed" a religious studies teacher who faced such severe threats after showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that he was forced into hiding.

The Free Speech Union is proud to be supporting Elaine. Lord Young, the Free Speech Union's General Secretary, has said that the force appears to be "more concerned with protecting the feelings of Muslim community leaders than protecting Jews from terrorist attacks". West Yorkshire Police has now taken her job away from her for raising legitimate concerns about Islamist extremism.

Read more in The Telegraph and her interview with Allison Pearson.