TONY BLAIR came under attack last night for failing to invite younger and more representative voices to his Downing Street summit for Muslim leaders.

Mr Blair emerged from his meeting, which was also attended by Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy, to announce the establishment of a Muslim task force to tackle Islamist extremism. But questions were immediately asked about whether a gathering dominated by MPs, peers, knights of the realm and ageing businessmen would have any influence over the young people vulnerable to indoctrination by hardliners.

Mr Blair said the task force, which was meeting to clarify its role last night, would confront the “evil” being spread by the extremists.

He said: “There was a strong desire from everybody there to make sure we establish the right mechanisms for people to be able to go into the community and confront this.

“They will be people who are going to be supported by the rest of us but from the community, able to talk to the Muslim community and confront this evil ideology, take it on and defeat it by the force of reason.”

But many organisations which had expected to be invited to the summit, called in the wake of the July 7 atrocities, were excluded.

Downing Street claimed it had to keep the meeting to a manageable size and argued that it was representative. But the No 10 PR machine had been concerned that it might face hostile headlines if the Prime Minister met with more radical elements.

Critics said that the attendance was made up of the “establishment” community leaders whose influence over Muslim youth was negligible.

The Muslim Association of Britain, which led community opposition to the Iraq war, said it was concerned to see a full and frank dialogue.

Ihtisham Hibatullah, its spokesman, said: “We were not invited. One thing that must be made clear to the Prime Minister is that he cannot create the representatives or leaders of the community.

“At this crucial time there should be a dialogue between the Government and the whole Muslim community.”

Shahid Mursaleen, of Minhaj-al-Quran (Way of the Koran), said: “We were in touch with the organisers but at the last minute they did not invite us.

“We were very disappointed because we represent the voice of over 5,000 people in the UK. I believe the true voice of Muslims in Britain was not represented. We were in touch with Downing Street for over a week. We were shocked to hear that the list had been finalised and we were not on it.”

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