A police hate crime adviser was sacked after she complained officers were avoiding Islamist extremism - the "elephant in the room" in a meeting about an antisemitic terrorist attack.
The woman, who sat as chairman of the Bradford Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel, accused West Yorkshire Police of trying to appease Muslims rather than focusing on the Jewish community.
She was removed from the scrutiny panel because of her "divisive and inflammatory" comments, which prompted complaints from Muslim police officers taking part in the meeting.
She was also previously accused of "hate speech" after she defended the public's free speech right to criticise the Prophet Mohammed.
A retired academic in her 60s, she told The Telegraph the letter she received informing of her removal from the panel "sounded like a threat".
The letter, penned by a senior officer, implied complainants had demanded her personal details and consideration if she had committed a hate crime.
She suggested the letter was written "for the Muslim men who complained to get him to shut me up - and he did as they asked".
But West Yorkshire Police has disputed her version of events, saying she was removed from the role after legal advice because her comments "did not demonstrate impartiality".
The former panel chairman, who asked to not be named, is now seeking a formal apology from Sir John Robins, the West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable.
Supporting her is the Free Speech Union and its founder Lord Young.
He has suggested the force was more concerned with "protecting the feelings of Muslim community leaders" than preventing attacks on the Jewish community.
The academic was approached in 2022 to volunteer for the panel, established to monitor how the police responded to hate crime reports.
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She was later elected chairman, but within months Muslim police officers demanded she be removed, she said.
In April last year, the panel reviewed a case of a man who had been charged with a hate crime after he rang a police helpline and told the Muslim call handler that the Prophet Mohammed was a paedophile.
The panel chairman had argued the comments, while "deeply unpleasant", did not constitute a hate crime as criticising a religious figure is not a criminal offence.
A panel of lawyers agreed with the former academic and the case was downgraded to a non-crime hate incident, but West Yorkshire Police began to call for her removal.
Calls for her removal escalated in October, when she participated in an emergency meeting to determine how to best respond to the synagogue attack in Manchester.
She felt the meeting had spent too much time discussing the needs of the Muslim community, rather than focusing on the needs of the Jewish community targeted by Islamist terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie.
This prompted six complaints, including one which said: "I don't know the lady in question… some of the wording used on the meeting today, I noted in my daybook, 'there is one community that this is coming from', ‘just say it how it is, we are not stupid.
"It appeared she was insinuating that the hate towards the Jewish community was from the Muslim community only and Muslims (2 billion or so worldwide) themselves."
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "Following the devastating attack in Manchester on October 2 2025, officers in Bradford called a meeting with partners to discuss concerns and reaffirm their commitment to keep the Jewish community and wider community safe.
"Following the meeting, complaints were received about divisive and inflammatory comments made by an attendee who held an impartial role as a chair of an Independent Advisory Group.
"Legal advice supported our view... that the attendee’s comments did not demonstrate impartiality and had breached both the Terms of Reference and Code of Conduct. As such, she was removed from the role.
"West Yorkshire Police is committed to keeping all of our communities safe. We have well-established links with the local Jewish communities and work closely with partners, including the Community Security Trust, to ensure there is co-ordinated protection, support and reassurance.
"We will continue to remain visible, accessible and do whatever we can to help make the Jewish communities of West Yorkshire feel safe."
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