Muslim policewoman who was hailed as a hero for confronting anti-lockdown protesters posted racist messages and had contact with a suspected female jihadi in Syria

From the Mail on Sunday

A Muslim police officer hailed as a role model for bravely confronting anti-lockdown protesters was facing an urgent investigation last night…Photographs and film of the petite young officer wearing a hijab on the front line went viral last year, with senior colleagues calling her inspirational.

Although she was unnamed at the time, The Mail on Sunday can reveal the police constable is 26-year-old Ruby Begum, who in the months before joining the Metropolitan Police in 2016 used Twitter to insult Jews and mock the 9/11 attacks.

Last night, after being alerted by this newspaper, the Met launched an investigation and referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Miss Begum has been placed on ‘restricted duties’. 

As Scotland Yard faced questions over how her rants were missed during vetting, (my husband’s immedaite comment as I read this out it emerged she communicated over many months with a woman thought to have fled Europe in 2014 to live under the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate. The woman would later acquire notoriety for appearing to defend male terrorists’ use of minority group Yazidis as sex slaves. Without offering explanation, Miss Begum writes around this time that her own passport was confiscated for a month.

Miss Begum…has been running a Twitter account under the name Ruby Beees since 2012, posting more than 25,000 messages … much of the officer’s output is unremarkable… football, in particular, Arsenal, her cat, cycling… interspersed with commonplace concerns are posts that will dismay Met Police chiefs battling longstanding accusations of institutional racism.

In 2014 Miss Begum wrote: ‘Dirty Zionist. Jahannam [hell] is awaiting.’ In another tweet, she wrote: ‘Israel have no limits. Scumbags I can’t wait for the day they get severely punished.’

Miss Begum is scornful of Pakistanis. (She was born in London but her parents came from Bangldesh) In June 2013, she tweeted to a Twitter user called @rajab_96: ‘LOL [laugh-out-loud] it’s cos you tweeted about p*** stuff so I thought your [sic] p***. Are you a p***?’ The Mail seems surprised, but I know from my own experience that the war between West and East Pakistan in 1971 which ended with east Pakistan becoming a free country, the new Bangladesh (direct translation is Free Bengal) left a lot of bitterness. Some people have not forgotten the atrocities and military rape inflicted on the Bangladeshis. But that was then, this is now. 

In March 2014, referring to the fierce cricketing rivalry between Pakistan and Bangladesh, Miss Begum tweeted: ‘I don’t care about cricket, just love this thing between Bengalis and p***s.’

She also mocks the 9/11 attacks in her tweets, even as recently as 2019 when she was a full-time officer in the Met. On September 11, 2019, as the world marked the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Miss Begum tweeted: ‘Omg [O my God] it’s 9/11 today? Jokes, I only noticed.’ On the same anniversary in 2014, she tweeted: ‘Must be stupid if you think I’m gonna do 2 mins silence for 9/11.’

The suspected IS female jihadi with whom she communicated uses the online name Muslimah4Life. In one tweet, Muslimah4Life said she was using a Yazidi slave as a maid: ‘My maid (slave) taught me how to bake a Syrian bread, finally I made one on my own today. Alhamdulilah [praise be to God].’ 

The tweets reveal Miss Begum is friends with Muslimah4Life, and may even know her true identity. Last night, terrorism experts said that it was shocking that a serving police officer was in contact with an infamous pro-IS Twitter user who may have been in Syria. They added that Miss Begum would be of interest to her own colleagues at the counter-terrorism command, which would be keen to know the true identity of Muslimah4Life.

There is no suggestion that Miss Begum tried to join IS or go to Syria, and some of her tweets indicate that she was appalled by the group’s behaviour. In one tweet in August 2014, she wrote: ‘This is disgusting: (Yezidi [sic] Exodus Continues, Girls Raped by ISIS Jump to their Death [in] Mount S….[Sinjar].’ She posted a link to a YouTube video which has since been taken down for violating the site’s rules. As an aside YouTube took down one of my videos last week; a short film I took in 2013 of one of Anjem Choudary’s acolytes ranting outside the Burmese embassy in support of the Rhoyinga Muslims. 

Last night, the Met said: ‘There is no place within the Met for any racist, homophobic or otherwise hateful attitudes and officers and staff can expect robust action should they be found to hold or express such views. The information provided by The Mail on Sunday regarding a police constable’s social media posts is concerning and is being treated very seriously. Following that assessment, the Met made a voluntary referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct who determined that the matter should be investigated locally. ..”