Greater Manchester Police has apologised for a training exercise in which an actor playing a terrorist repeatedly shouted "Allahu akbar", meaning "God is great" in Arabic.
Emergency service personnel and volunteers were taking part in a simulated terrorist attack on a Manchester shopping centre. An actor playing a suicide bomber shouted the phrase four times before supposedly blowing himself up.
As video footage of the operation went public, the backlash to the use of the phrase was immediate, with GP and columnist Siema Iqbal tweeting the force to demand an explanation for their choice of words.
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Muslims and non-Muslims alike rallied to her protest, criticising the force for appearing to single out an already victimised minority and for potentially harming community relations.
Writing in The Independent, former counter-terrorist officer Kevin Maxwell asked: "Did the fake bomber shouting 'Allahu Akbar' actually add anything to the training event?" No, he argued. "All that happened was that a minority group society now routinely sees as the enemy was put under the spotlight again."
However, others argued that use of the phrase was justified given that Islamic extremism is currently the face of global terror.
Greater Manchester Police said the exercise had been intended to mimic a suicide attack by an "extremist Daesh-style organisation" and organisers had tried to include as many real-life details as possible from recent terror attacks.
However, Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan apologised on behalf of the force for including the phrase.
"On reflection, we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam," he said in a statement. "We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused."
