Muslim human rights lawyer, Fahad Ansari, is suing the UK government

A Muslim human rights lawyer, Fahad Ansari, arrives in court as part of his legal action against the UK government after his detention at the port of Holyhead in Wales in the summer as he returned from a family holiday in his native Ireland with his wife and four children.

He was interrogated for hours about his religion, mosque attendance, views on Palestine and even his clients, before police seized his work phone containing legally privileged material.

He maintains his detention was unlawful.

The fact that they did it to me, a lawyer who deals in national security cases against the government, is quite chilling, actually, and it's just an escalation.

Fahad Ansari, Human Rights Lawyer

• Muslim lawyer targeted under British anti-terror law
  

  Muslim lawyer targeted under British anti-terror law

  In Britain, an Irish-born Muslim lawyer is challenging his border detention under anti-terrorism laws.

Ansari, who is part of a legal team challenging the proscription of Hamas in UK courts at the group's behest, was detained under the notorious Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000; a power allowing the police to detain and question travelers without suspicion.

Those familiar with the legislation accuse the British government of weaponizing it.

It's an attempt to silence us, to delegitimize resistance in many forms, we've seen what they've done to our doctors, how they demonize, weaponize anti semitism, weaponize their falsified use of terrorism charges, and it's scaremongering tactics.

It's control, domination and silencing of our voices and stripping of our basic civil liberties.

Lubna Speitan, Palestinian-British Activist

• David Miller detained at airport under Terrorism Act
  

  David Miller detained at airport under Terrorism Act

  David Miller, a former sociology professor and journalist, was detained at a UK airport under the Terrorism Act after covering the funeral of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah in Beirut.

The case has triggered an extraordinary show of solidarity.

117 lawyers, academics, imams and artists have signed a joint statement condemning an escalating campaign of harassment against him and the application of the terror legislation, overwhelmingly against British Muslims.

• Pro-Palestine activists, Muslims, target of ‘lawfare’
  

  Pro-Palestine activists, Muslims, target of ‘lawfare’

  With pressure being brought to bear from the pro-Israel lobby, activists are increasingly finding themselves targeted by various arms of the British state.

We know the British state is Islamophobic. We know that they engage in literal mass murder of Muslims and get away with it.

Tony Blair did that. His predecessor prime ministers did that. It was Cameron, of course, who destroyed, helped to destroy Libya.

So we know the British state is deeply Islamophobic, and we know that Schedule 7 is used in an Islamophobic way, tends to target Muslims.

And we know that even just from the way that this case is panned out all right, like there were three lawyers instructed by Hamas to bring an application under section 4 of the Terrorism Act, only one of them was a brown Muslim, the other two, like myself, were white, and we weren't targeted.

Franck Magennis, Barrister

• UK expands police powers after sweeping arrests of Palestine Action supporters
  

  UK expands police powers after sweeping arrests of Palestine Action supporters

  The UK government is moving to further restrict public dissent, granting police greater powers to curb pro-Palestine protests after nearly 500 supporters of the banned Palestine Action group were detained in one day.

Schedule 7 was purportedly written to protect Britain against terrorism, but the campaigners here say its repeated use against Muslims, and now a lawyer representing them, raises a deeper question.

Is this counterterrorism or discrimination under the guise of security?

• Galloway detained at Gatwick by counter-terrorism police
  

  Galloway detained at Gatwick by counter-terrorism police

  George Galloway, a former British parliamentarian, was detained at Gatwick Airport on September 27 under Schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act.

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