MUSLIM leaders were told yesterday that they must do more to confront extremism in their midst.

Ruth Kelly, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, said that Britain was engaged in a battle for the hearts and minds of a disenchanted younger generation of Muslims.

At a series of meetings with leaders of Muslim organisations, she called on them to do more to confront extreme representations of Islamic teaching and to open up the leadership of mosques and secular community organisations.

Ms Kelly said: “We have all got to raise our game. They have got to play their part and they recognise that they have to play their part in a more comprehensive fashion than has happened up to now.

“They have got to reach out to young people. Their mosques have got to become more accessible to young people. They have got to enable young British Muslims to become imams or community leaders in a way that has not been possible up to now.”

Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK and Ireland, said after the meeting that Muslims were willing to help but there should be a partnership. He said he had asked for holidays to mark Muslim festivals and Islamic laws to cover family affairs which would apply only to Muslims. Ms Kelly had told him she would “look sympathetically at all the suggestions” that had been made, he said.

The meetings, described by officials as having “frank and sharp exchanges”, came after prominent Muslim organisations and politicians signed a letter to Tony Blair at the weekend demanding a change in British foreign policy, saying that it was providing ammunition for terrorists. Ms Kelly said that foreign policy would not be dictated by a small group of people, but conceded that the Government could do more to explain aspects of its policy, such as intervening in Kosovo to protect Muslims.

Many Muslim leaders have been critical of the Government for failing to take up the recommendations made by a task force set up after the July 7 bombings in London last summer, notably a public inquiry into the attacks and steps to tackle Islamophobia.

Working groups drawn from Muslim communities established to prevent extremism were disbanded after their report was published last November, and one Whitehall source told The Times privately that government moves to engage with British Muslims must be “stepped up a gear”.

The main thrust will be to ensure that imams are accredited and trained to prevent “preachers of hate” from radicalising young people at mosques, and to work with young people and Muslim women.

This will involve lectures from moderate Islamic scholars, visits by ministers to Muslim communities and the establishment of a Commission on Integration and Cohesion.

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