Police Officer Fired for Racist Posts About Non-Muslims

New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, in London on Feb. 9, 2022. James Manning/PA

The Metropolitan Police have fired an officer after she admitted in a misconduct hearing to posting racist messages on social media, including against non-Muslims and Jewish people.

Ruby Begum, 29, was fired on Wednesday after she admitted to using discriminatory language on social media platform X, including calling non-Muslims “kuffar,” posting “Zionists have no heart,” and using a racist term derived from a shortened form of “Pakistani.” She had also made controversial statements about the 9/11 terror attacks.

The panel said Begum’s posts were “racist, discriminatory and intolerant,” ruling that she had committed gross misconduct and should be dismissed without notice.

The hearing’s Chairwoman Evis Samupfonda said that the posts were “so vile that members of the public could not be confident they would be treated fairly” by the officer.

Investigators examined around 25,000 of Begum’s posts made between 2013 and 2019. Begum had joined the police as a special constable in May 2014 and became a PC in July 2016, during which time she continued to make offensive posts, which remained visible on her account.

Begum, who was attached to the Met’s Taskforce, had initially come to public attention after a photograph of her policing an anti-COVID-19 lockdown protest went viral.

‘Dirty Zionists’

During the police misconduct hearing, Begum admitted she had used discriminatory language such as “dirty Zionists. Hell is waiting” in her X posts, while she was serving as a special constable.

When asked about these comments, Begum said they were a critique of the Israeli government.

She told the panel on Monday that she did not think it was a term of offence against Jewish people, adding, “I heard Jeremy Corbyn say it in Parliament and thought it was OK.”

The former officer also admitted using the term “kuffar” to refer to non-Muslims, writing, “Kuffar lips have been all over my mug, there is no way I’m using that thing again.” She had also used derogatory language to describe Arabs and Pakistanis.

On the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Begum posted, “You must be stupid if you think I’m gonna do 2 minutes silence 9/11.”

A year later, she wrote: “Omg it’s 9/11 today. Jokes. I only noticed.”

When asked about the 9/11 posts, Begum said she was not mocking the attacks, but that the anniversary “took me back to the hurtful and painful experiences of when I was young and when I was a teenager,” saying there were tensions in Muslim communities around that time.

She had also made comments about the 2014 beheading of Alan Henning at the hands of “Jihadi John,” writing: “You lot saying free Alan Henning. Remember the Muslim brothers and sisters imprisoned by Kuffar.”

Begum had acknowledged her posts amounted to misconduct, but argued they were not gross misconduct—which results in dismissal—saying she believed a final warning would have been sufficient. The panel, however, disagreed.

Begum ‘Transformed’ Since Posts

Begum had previously apologised for the posts, telling the panel that she had been “transformed” since she wrote them, putting their content to down to her immaturity and having grown up inside a “bubble.”

Raised in a Muslim household in east London, Begum said: “In my head it was us and them. People from my background and then everyone else. I didn’t come across different people at school or in my friendship groups.”

She added that all the social content she encountered was from the same “cultural background,” but that since joining the police she had met different people and grown in maturity.

But the panel rejected those explanations, as “she was an adult and a serving police officer.” They also pointed out that offensive and derogatory posts continued to be posted even after Begum had undertaken two rounds of equality and diversity training, once in 2014 when she joined as a special constable and in 2016 when becoming a full time police constable.

Dismissed and Barred

Chief Superintendent Colin Wingrove, in charge of the Met’s Taskforce, said in a statement that there was no room in the force “for anyone with racist or otherwise hateful attitudes.”

Wingrove said, “The overwhelming majority of officers in the Met make a fantastic contribution to policing London, but we can only rebuild trust and continue to deliver the change that is needed by taking action, as we have today, to remove those within our ranks who do not share our values.”

The investigation was sparked after the Metropolitan Police received information from the Mail on Sunday regarding Begum on Aug. 6, 2021. She was notified and initially put on restricted duties and then was suspended on Aug. 9, 2022.

Begum will now be placed on the barred list held by the College of Policing, meaning she will never be employed by police, local policing bodies, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, or His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

PA Media contributed to this report.