Britain has failed to take up an offer by King Abdullah to send trained imams and Islamic experts to bolster moderate British Muslims in their fight against extremism.

“We have been talking to the British Government, but I am not as happy as I would like to be on the level of cooperation in supporting our efforts,” the King told The Times. “I think more can be done.”

During a visit to London three years ago the King outlined his readiness to send properly trained scholars in Arabic and Islamic theology to Britain to help Muslim communities that lacked native speakers to help to teach Arabic. He hoped that this would undermine the influence of extremist imams, many of them from Pakistan, who did not have enough grasp of Arabic to give a balanced interpretation of the Koran.

He was clearly angry and and disappointed at the cool response to his offer, but refused to apportion blame. “Maybe I will just leave it at that,” he said. “We have been more successful in other countries”.

British Muslims have been hostile to the proposal, saying that imams from Jordan would have little idea of the context in which young British Muslims grow up. A spokesman said yesterday that mosques in Britain are jealous of their independence and financial autonomy, and would be extremely suspicious of any government-backed attempt to introduce imams from abroad. “They would ask whether there was a secret agenda, and this might provoke a backlash,” he said.

Britain has tightened visa regulations for foreign imams, and Tony Blair said after the London bombings that those who could not speak English should not be appointed to sensitive posts in British mosques.

Jordan has tried to broaden the education of Islamic scholars and theologians, and has opened a training college in which the sciences, history and modern political economy are compulsory subjects.

The King said that the struggle against Islamic extremism was “a long-term process. It is not something that can be achieved overnight.”

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