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U.K. Muslims vow to fight terror

Hasan Suroor

Tony Blair meets community MPs, religious leaders and academics

— PHOTO: AP

JOINING FORCES: Liberal Democratic Party leader Charles Kennedy (centre) flanked by British Muslim MPs, community leaders and representatives talk to the media following a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Tuesday.

LONDON: Britain's Muslim leaders gave a commitment to Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday that they would cooperate with Government agencies in tackling religious extremism.

They also extended the community's support to tougher anti-terror measures proposed by the Government in the wake of July 7 London bombings, and made clear that they would not tolerate any misuse of their religion to spread hatred.

Consensus on agenda

Mr Blair, who had called a meeting of Muslim MPs, religious leaders and academics in Downing Street to seek a consensus on the Government's new anti-terror agenda, told reporters that there was a "very strong'' desire among Muslims to confront terrorists and their "evil ideology''.

He said it was important for mainstream Muslims to take head on people who preached hatred by resorting to "perverted'' logic.

The message from the Muslim leaders was that they were keen to unite behind efforts to tackle terrorism.

Mr Blair suggested establishing the "right mechanisms'' such as a task force or a network of community leaders to talk to young Muslims, and steer them away from people who could exploit them in the name of religion.

Labour MP Shahid Malik who was present at the meeting said Muslims faced a "profound challenge'' and they must work together with the Government to fight terror.

"Reach out to the youth"

"We will be working closely with public agencies engaged in tackling extremism,'' he said.

Opposition leaders Michael Howard (Conservative) and Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats), who also attended the meeting, stressed the need to reach out to impressionable young Muslims to prevent them from falling under the influence of extremists.

Mr Blair again denied that Britain's invasion of Iraq had anything to do with the London bombings after a "leaked'' report of an intelligence think-tank claimed that, according to the Government's own admission, events in Iraq were "continuing to act as motivation and a focus of a range of terror-related activity in the U.K''.

The report of the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre leaked to The New York Times came a day after a leading independent think-tank — Chatham House — said in a study that the situation in Iraq had contributed to terrorism and a poll in The Guardian indicated that two-thirds of Britons believed there was a link between the London bombings and the Iraq invasion.

Call to Pakistan

Mr. Blair on Tuesday urged Pakistan to take crack down on madrasas which contributed to the rise of religious extremism.

At a joint press conference with the visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Downing Street, Mr Blair said Pakistan suffers from terrorism and it was in its own interest to take steps to root it out.

Mr Karzai said the violence in Afghanistan and Britain was "not related to Islam''. Terrorists were only interested in killing people, he said. He praised Britons for the way they responded to the July 7 attacks.

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