New task force to battle ‘evil ideology’
A task force will be set up to liaise with the Muslim community and confront the “evil ideology” behind the London bombings, Tony Blair said today.
The prime minister was speaking in the wake of a meeting with 25 senior Muslim leaders at Downing Street to discuss how best to respond to the July 7th attacks.
It had been a “very heartening meeting” which showed a “remarkable degree of unity” between the different representatives, Mr Blair said.
He said there was a “strong desire” from those who met to set up a task force to speak to young Muslims in the UK and defeat extremism.
While stressing that the vast majority of British Muslims condemned the violence in London, Mr Blair has said that the community must speak out against extremism. Today’s meeting, he said, was intended to mobilise the moderate voice of Islam to fight extremism.
Conservative leader Michael Howard, who also attended the meeting along with Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy, added: “One thing that came out most was the responsibility of the Muslim community for reaching out to those who have been the targets of the merchants of evil and hatred.”
Speaking later following talks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Mr Blair said extremism was the “perversion of true Islam”.
Rejecting claims that military action in Iraq and Afghanistan had merely encouraged terrorism, he added: “They will always have their reasons for acting.
“But we’ve got to be really careful of almost giving in to the sort of perverted and twisted logic with which they argue.”
Muslim leaders will now meet again this evening to come up with proposals on reaching out to alienated young British Muslims, with a view to presenting plans to home secretary Charles Clarke tomorrow.
Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting and one of those at today’s meeting, said the problem of reaching out to tackle extremism was “very serious”.
“The problem is reaching those parts of the community, in this instance the Muslim community, who have not been able to be reached by either the Muslim leadership or by mainstream leadership,” he told the World at One.
