Ian Blair

London, Jan. 21: A young Muslim woman refused to shake the hand of Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, at a passing out parade for new recruits into the force because she felt this would infringe her religious and cultural values, it was disclosed today.

The woman infuriated the head of Scotland Yard further by announcing she would not be photographed wearing her hijab alongside Blair because she feared the image would be exploited by the police for “propaganda” purposes.

It is true that the police, which are increasingly being called upon to deal with Islamic terrorists, are desperate to attract many more Muslims. Despite a vigorous campaign, there are still only around 300 Muslims among the Met’s 35,000 officers and fewer than 20 are women. Scotland Yard has allowed Muslim women constables to wear an adaptation of the hijab since 2001.

Blair went along with the unusual request because he did not want to disrupt the passing out parade at which 200 recruits, including the unidentified Muslim woman, were marking the end of an 18-week training period.

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said: “This request was only granted by members of training staff out of a desire to minimise any disruption to others’ enjoyment, and to ensure the smooth running of what is one of the most important events in an officer’s career.”

The spokeswoman said the force would not normally tolerate such requests and the officer could be fired if she failed to fulfil her duties. Blair questioned the validity of the woman’s request but she argued that her faith forbade a woman from either touching or kissing a man who was not her husband or a close relative.

This incident is likely to provoke another controversy of the kind generated when Jack Straw, the leader of the Commons, made critical comments about Muslim women who covered their faces in public work places. He had given the example of his own constituents in Blackburn where Muslim women, with their faces covered, had come to consult him in his surgery.

Since then, there have been other cases, where a few Muslim women have asked for the right to keep their faces covered when teaching schoolchildren or pleading in court as lawyers.

A “senior police source” told a Sunday newspaper: “Sir Ian was informed on his arrival of the officer’s request. This has never happened before and he was bloody furious. But he agreed to go along with it so as not to cause a scene.”

The source said: “He went out and shook the hand of every single new recruit apart from her. It was very obvious and very embarrassing. There was a great deal of discussion about it afterwards. People were asking how the hell is she going to make an arrest if she refuses to touch men.”

The incident happened at Imber Court, Scotland Yard’s sports and conference centre at Thames Ditton in South West London, on December 21.

The woman, said to be a “non-Asian Muslim”, maintained she put the requirements of being a police officer above her personal beliefs unless she had the choice to do otherwise.

She had undertaken the safety course “which requires recruits to come into physical contact with each other regardless of gender”, the spokeswoman said.

The woman police constable, who has already started a two-year probationary period, has now been assigned to a West London police station as a beat bobby.

The spokeswoman tried to put forward the complicated explanation the Muslim woman had given to justify her behaviour: “There is a standard between personal and professional life. A passing-out parade is a personal event. You are not fulfilling a professional duty there.”