Kelly reveals targeted Muslim funding plans
Ruth Kelly will only give state funds to Muslim groups who help the fight against terror
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Wednesday, 11, Oct 2006 04:55
British Muslim groups must demonstrate that they are actively taking part in the fight against extremism if they wish to secure funding from the government, Ruth Kelly has announced.
The communities and local government secretary told Muslim groups today that a "fundamental rebalancing" of the relationship between the state and Muslim communities was required in order to win the "battle of ideas" at the root of tackling terrorism.
By encouraging the growth of deradicalisation programmes and the promotion of "good quality teaching" of Islam, Ms Kelly said that she hoped a real difference could be made in reducing the threat of Islamic extremism up and down the UK.
"I am clear that our strategy of funding and engagement must shift significantly towards those organisations that are taking a proactive leadership role in tackling extremism and defending our shared values," she said.
Ms Kelly's comments have been greeted with caution by the Muslim community, who have been anxious to point out that the problem of radicalisation goes beyond the teachings of communities.
The leader of the Muslim parliament, Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, said that young people would always be "victims to some kind of extremism" unless they were remove from "deprivation".
"Whatever those [Muslim] groups do will always be marginal to the core problem you face - you have to take people out of deprivation," Dr Siddiqui said. "They are sitting targets for all kind of demagogues."
Meanwhile Massoud Shadjareh, chairperson of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), criticised Ms Kelly's definition of extremism.
"The deliberate confusion surrounding the word 'extremism' is a ploy by the government to use its financial muscle to socially engineer a new brand of Islam which will be subservient to its foreign policy," he said.
"Ms Kelly should be genuinely honest and recognise that there is a tremendous commitment to a multicultural multi-religious Britain throughout the Muslim community irrespective of its diverse views on foreign and domestic policy."