Pakistan's ambassador: address integration of Muslims

Monday, 18 July 2005 12:00 AM

Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, has urged the Blair administration to address the problem of integrating Muslims into British society.

His intervention came as critics charged president Pervez Musharraf's government of sitting back while radical Islamism spreads in Pakistan.

According to the press reports, Shehzad Tanweer, one of the London bombers, trained at a madrassa, or Islamic religious school, in Lahore.

The 22-year-old killed seven people on a Circle Line train between Aldgate and Liverpool Street.

Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, said closer scrutiny would be given to madrassas preaching extremism.

But Mr Akram told the BBC the breeding grounds for terrorism were very widespread.

"What motivated British lads to do this? It's not because their blood was from Pakistan that they were radicalised; we have to look at the causes where they were born, not their ethnicity.

"They grew up in Britain, and I think that the fact of the environment in which they grew up and whatever angst they had was a result of their upbringing in Britain, not as a result of instant brainwashing somewhere else.

"I think that it is important not to pin blame on somebody else when the problem lies internally. I think you have to look at British society, at what you're doing to the Muslim community, and why is it that the Muslim community is not integrating into British society, and what are the reasons?"

International development secretary, Hilary Benn, told the BBC the problem was not about ethnicity per se but about ideology and dogmatism.

"This is an international problem, and there is a responsibility on all of us - wherever it is that we happen to live - to take on the ideology."

Pakistan is an ally of the US in the global war on terrorism.

President Musharraf said it behoved Pakistan to rid itself of "the malaise of extremism" if future generations were to enjoy a modern, peaceful, vibrant society.

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