The British government is launching a new controversial scheme, said to be costing pnds 5 million, to help local authorities spy on Muslims in what it describes as a new campaign to root out extremism, The Daily Mirror reported.
“Council staff will be asked to establish systems to share potential risks or concerns at the local level with councils and staff acting as the eyes and ears for police in countering threats,” the paper said.
British Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, the architect of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s so-called diversity and integration policy told The Mirror, one of UK’s top tabloids that supports the ruling Labour Party, that the package will “enable us to harness the long-established expertise of local authorities in developing deep insights into their areas in order to meet the challenge of tackling violent extremism”.
"Extremism is an issue for all of us. Local authorities must rise to the challenge too," Kelly said.
The move is not the first in a list of radical policies adopted by the British government following last year’s alleged terror plot to bomb planes bound for major U.S. cities.
Representatives of the British Muslim Community warn that such moves, that include racial and faith profiling of Muslims would backfire and hamper efforts to integrate them into the British society, something the government has long claimed it’s trying to inculcate.
Similar concerns were raised by local council trade unions who described Kelly’s plan as a threat against the council staff as they could be targeted by “extremists”.
Many members of Parliament in the Labour Party’s own ranks, as well as opposition politicians and Muslim groups and individuals such as the Muslim Council of Britain, the British Muslim Forum and Lord Nazir Ahmed, the Labour peer, blame the British foreign policy, especially its involvement in the U.S-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for radicalizing young Muslims in UK.
-- AJP and Agencies
“Council staff will be asked to establish systems to share potential risks or concerns at the local level with councils and staff acting as the eyes and ears for police in countering threats,” the paper said.
British Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, the architect of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s so-called diversity and integration policy told The Mirror, one of UK’s top tabloids that supports the ruling Labour Party, that the package will “enable us to harness the long-established expertise of local authorities in developing deep insights into their areas in order to meet the challenge of tackling violent extremism”.
"Extremism is an issue for all of us. Local authorities must rise to the challenge too," Kelly said.
The move is not the first in a list of radical policies adopted by the British government following last year’s alleged terror plot to bomb planes bound for major U.S. cities.
Representatives of the British Muslim Community warn that such moves, that include racial and faith profiling of Muslims would backfire and hamper efforts to integrate them into the British society, something the government has long claimed it’s trying to inculcate.
Similar concerns were raised by local council trade unions who described Kelly’s plan as a threat against the council staff as they could be targeted by “extremists”.
Many members of Parliament in the Labour Party’s own ranks, as well as opposition politicians and Muslim groups and individuals such as the Muslim Council of Britain, the British Muslim Forum and Lord Nazir Ahmed, the Labour peer, blame the British foreign policy, especially its involvement in the U.S-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for radicalizing young Muslims in UK.
-- AJP and Agencies
