How do you recruit Muslim spies?
Updated on 31 October 2007
As a new Channel 4 drama tells the story of a Muslim who joins MI5 More4 News asks if Muslims are really queuing up to join the intelligence agencies?
In the old days - recruiting for the security services was straightforward - a tap on the shoulder at Oxford or Cambridge. Or a mysterious letter through the post - an appointment time - for a secret meeting at an address in London.
The target - Certainly public school educated, almost certainly Oxbridge - more often than not, your name suggested as being 'one of us' - by someone within the organisation...
Things have changed.
Online gamers will have begun to see in-game ads this week - for careers with the government intelligence gatherers and codebreakers at GCHQ. They want to widen the net - to recruit more technologically literate, problem-solving young people into government service.
Mi5 too - have changed. Once they didn't even admit they existed, now - recruitment ads and a careers website. Starting pay for an intelligence officer - 23,500, with benefits.
They're also keen to cast their net wider - they're desperate to get more women, ethnic minorities and especially Muslims into the service.
It's the storyline for tonight's high-profile channel 4 drama Britz - where two siblings follow very different paths - one into Mi5. The other into Islamic extremism and terrorism.
But it's one thing to call for recruits from the Muslim community - getting them is another matter. But for an organisation with a history of secrecy, old boy's networks and strict hierarchy - there can be other problems adapting to the modern world.
But maybe secrecy is the best policy for the security services. After all, day after day - can any job possibly be as exciting as it looks on TV?
This report was compiled by Dave Fuller
