BBC : UK 'must tackle extremism threat'

UK 'must tackle extremism threat'

August 24, 2006

In a speech on Thursday, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly is expected to say society must do more to come together to tackle extremism.

Ms Kelly is launching a Commission on Integration and Cohesion to establish common values across society.

The body will look at how communities are tackling extremism and tensions between different groups.

The Commission on Integration and Cohesion starts work in September and will tour the UK, looking at how towns, cities and communities tackle challenges such as segregation and social or economic divisions between different ethnic groups.

But its work will include examining the fight against extremist ideas amid concerns from some Muslim leaders that they are not receiving enough help in combating the growth of radicalisation.

Muslim communities have been divided since the London bombings over how best to address radical movements associated with extremism, with some saying there is a small but serious problem and others denying terrorism is linked to Islamist thinking.

The commission is designed to carry on some of the research that followed riots in northern towns in 2001. Following that violence, experts warned the government some communities were leading "parallel lives" with little or no contact with each other.

In her speech, Ms Kelly is expected to say the UK has a long track record on integrating minorities - but current alerts over terrorism have seen a heightening of tension in some areas.

'Huge challenge'

Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green said: "There is a huge and vital challenge to be met in helping Britain's Muslim communities integrate fully with the rest of society.

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"We hope that this latest government initiative has more substance than previous initiatives which have tended to grab a headline but then achieve very little in the long term."

But in her speech, Ms Kelly will argue that the creation of her department earlier this year signalled the government was committed to findings ways of knitting together a diverse society.

Home Secretary John Reid has already called for a more "mature" debate on immigration while communities minister Phil Woolas told faith leaders the government had realised the fight against extremists would take a generation.

In the wake of the anti-terrorism arrests earlier in August, Ms Kelly's department held meetings with Muslim leaders who said they needed the government to do more to help them tackle extremist elements.

Ministers say the majority of recommendations from the extremism taskforce, set up after the July 7 London bombings, are now in hand, despite criticism that the Home Office had been slow to act on the report.

The government has however rejected a call from the taskforce to hold a public inquiry into the bombings.