Top Muslim leaders in the United Kingdom criticize the government for failing to implement or even consider several recommendations proposed by the Muslim task force formed after the July 7 attacks on London, The Times Online reported.
Prime Minister Tony Blair set up the Muslim task force after the London bombings, saying that Muslim leaders were the best to tackle the “radicalism” of young people.
More than 1,000 Muslim clerics and Imams held several meetings during the autumn, and came up with practical ways to tackle extremism.
However, only one of the 64 proposals made by the task force in its final report last November has been fully implemented. This recommendation called for allowing top Islamic scholars to tour Britain to explain to young Muslims the true teachings of Islam.
There has been some progress on a second proposal that involved setting up an organization to clarify misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.
But task force members say that the government shelved the rest of the recommendations, with no timetable or funding for their implementation.
One of the most crucial proposals snubbed by the government called for the establishment of a national advisory council for all mosques and imams. This idea was dismissed by the Home Office after a row over its independence from the British government. However, task force members say that the advisory council is so important that they will try to set it up themselves.
The task force also wanted to set up a Muslim-run media affairs rapid rebuttal unit and an Islamic website to counter Islamophobia and correct negative views of Islam in schools. But this initiative has also been ignored.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, who participated in the policing group on the task force, told The Times how disappointed he and his colleagues felt.
“They walked us up to the top of the hill and now they are walking us down again,” he said. “What tangible progress has been made after all these months?
”The Muslims on the task force are among the brightest and ablest in Britain, who gave many hours of their time to come up with the very best ideas on integration and tackling extremism. Now they are coming up to MPs like me and asking what is going on.”
Another task force member, Ibrahim Mogra, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s mosque and community affairs committee, said that the British government embarrassed the task force in front of the Muslim community, who are now skeptical about future co-operation.
“When we engage with Government we do so on behalf of our communities and they expect to see the results of our engagement,” he said. “Because they have not seen any progress they now feel it is pointless to engage with Government, that Government only uses us so that it looks like. It is becoming exceptionally difficult for us in terms of our relationship and accountability to our communities.”
Meanwhile, Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, warned police that they risked alienating the Muslim community while they need its help, referring to this month's raid on a London house of two Muslim brothers, in which one of the men was shot.
“Every time an operation like this goes wrong, it further alienates communities who want to help in the fight against terrorism,” he said in a speech to the Social Policy Forum.
Prime Minister Tony Blair set up the Muslim task force after the London bombings, saying that Muslim leaders were the best to tackle the “radicalism” of young people.
More than 1,000 Muslim clerics and Imams held several meetings during the autumn, and came up with practical ways to tackle extremism.
However, only one of the 64 proposals made by the task force in its final report last November has been fully implemented. This recommendation called for allowing top Islamic scholars to tour Britain to explain to young Muslims the true teachings of Islam.
There has been some progress on a second proposal that involved setting up an organization to clarify misconceptions about Islam and Muslims.
But task force members say that the government shelved the rest of the recommendations, with no timetable or funding for their implementation.
One of the most crucial proposals snubbed by the government called for the establishment of a national advisory council for all mosques and imams. This idea was dismissed by the Home Office after a row over its independence from the British government. However, task force members say that the advisory council is so important that they will try to set it up themselves.
The task force also wanted to set up a Muslim-run media affairs rapid rebuttal unit and an Islamic website to counter Islamophobia and correct negative views of Islam in schools. But this initiative has also been ignored.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, who participated in the policing group on the task force, told The Times how disappointed he and his colleagues felt.
“They walked us up to the top of the hill and now they are walking us down again,” he said. “What tangible progress has been made after all these months?
”The Muslims on the task force are among the brightest and ablest in Britain, who gave many hours of their time to come up with the very best ideas on integration and tackling extremism. Now they are coming up to MPs like me and asking what is going on.”
Another task force member, Ibrahim Mogra, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s mosque and community affairs committee, said that the British government embarrassed the task force in front of the Muslim community, who are now skeptical about future co-operation.
“When we engage with Government we do so on behalf of our communities and they expect to see the results of our engagement,” he said. “Because they have not seen any progress they now feel it is pointless to engage with Government, that Government only uses us so that it looks like. It is becoming exceptionally difficult for us in terms of our relationship and accountability to our communities.”
Meanwhile, Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, warned police that they risked alienating the Muslim community while they need its help, referring to this month's raid on a London house of two Muslim brothers, in which one of the men was shot.
“Every time an operation like this goes wrong, it further alienates communities who want to help in the fight against terrorism,” he said in a speech to the Social Policy Forum.
