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A Metropolitan Police officer has apologised for posting offensive tweets about Jewish people and non-Muslims, but denied they warranted her dismissal.
Pc Ruby Begum, 29, admitted during a police misconduct hearing on Monday that she used offensive language such as “dirty Zionists. Hell is waiting” while serving as a special constable.
She also admitted using the term “kuffar” to refer to non-believers, saying: “Kuffar lips have been all over my mug, there is no way I’m using that thing again.”
Around 25,000 posts were made between 2013 and 2019 under the Twitter username @ruby_beee and Ms Begum has been accused of failing to disclose this handle twice during vetting processes in 2014 and 2016.
The hearing was told accusations against Ms Begum that she had held an interest in extremist preachers and had failed to disclose her links to a jihadi woman living inside a so-called Islamic State caliphate in Syria had been dropped over a lack of evidence.
Ms Begum gained widespread recognition in 2020 after a photo of her facing down anti-lockdown protesters in London went viral.
But in 2021, a Mail on Sunday article revealed her controversial posts on Twitter.
Ms Begum, who was raised in a Muslim household in east London, admitted on Monday that she had used discriminatory language when describing Arabs, people from Pakistan and non-Muslims, with one post referring to the 2014 beheading of Alan Henning at the hands of “Jihadi John”: “You lot saying free Alan Henning. Remember the Muslim brothers and sisters imprisoned by Kuffar.”
She also used a shortened version of the word Pakistani, a comment she denied was racist and was instead her way of identifying a group of people.
When asked if there a police officer should ever be using that word, Ms Begum said: “Not on duty, no”, adding: “It depends on the context and it’s about intent and ownership … some say it’s not racist and use it as a shortening of the word Pakistani.”
Asked again if a police officer should ever use the term, she said “no they shouldn’t” and added: “I wouldn’t use it now.”
Ms Begum also made a series of derogatory posts about Jewish people, writing: “Dirty Zionists. Hell is waiting” and “Zionists have no heart”.
When asked about these comments, she said she did not believe all Jewish people were Zionists and that her comments were about the Israeli government and the deaths of Palestinians.
She told the panel: “I had a problem with the Israeli government and systematic inequalities. I’ve seen anti-Zionist Jewish people and never equated them.
“I didn’t think it was a term of offence. I heard Jeremy Corbyn say it in Parliament and thought it was OK.
“If I was describing Jewish people, I would just say Jewish people. I have nothing against Jewish people. I have no hate towards that group.”
She also made a series of posts about the September 11 attacks.
On the 17th anniversary, Ms Begum said: “You must be stupid if you think I’m gonna do 2 minutes silence 9/11.”
A year later, she posted: “Omg it’s 9/11 today. Jokes. I only noticed.”
Ms Begum told the panel she made the comments when she was a “different person” who was “narrow-minded”, adding: “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry … If I could take it back I would. I’m ashamed and it hurts me that my career is now in jeopardy because I was doing really well.”
The hearing was told that the defendant believed her comments on Jewish people, Arabs and non-Muslims amounted to misconduct, but not gross misconduct which would result in her dismissal.
Ms Begum instead believed a final warning would be sufficient.
She argued that her comments about Pakistani people, which were posted prior to her joining the Metropolitan Police in 2014 but remained visible to the public while she was serving, would only have breached the professional code if she had been a serving officer at the time.
Ms Begum later told the panel: “I was just identifying (Pakistani people). There was no hate or insult intended”.
Asked why she did not delete the posts, she said: “In my head it didn’t stick out like it was something really bad I had to go back years and years for a specific tweet and delete it. I didn’t think about it all.”
Ms Begum also claimed her comments about the 9/11 terror attacks were a response to the Islamophobic abuse that followed and were not mocking the attacks nor those who died.
She said: “I wasn’t mocking 9/11. There is always tension on the anniversary in Muslim communities. Something would always happen.
“(The anniversary) took me back to the hurtful and painful experiences of when I was young and when I was a teenager.
“I would never invite people to make jokes about 9/11 because that’s not what I was doing at the time. If I could go back in time and change it I would. I’m sorry.”
She also denied failing to disclose her Twitter username during two vetting processes and claimed she provided the handle @ruby_beee on both occasions but that the posts appeared under the name @ruby_beees after she changed it in 2019.
The account was later deactivated after she was served a notice of investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
When asked about the Mail on Sunday headline from 2021 which read “Exposed: Muslim policewoman who was hailed as a hero for confronting anti-lockdown protesters posted a torrent of racist messages”, Ms Begum said she felt she was being targeted for her Islamic faith and culture.
Ms Begum is attached to the Territorial Support Group.
The misconduct hearing is looking at whether she breached the standards of professional behaviour in discreditable conduct; equality and diversity; and honesty and integrity.
