`Muslim parents in UK exposing kids to radical Islamic groups`
ZEENEWS.com
London, June 11. 2008
The failure of the Muslims to integrate with British society has left their children open to the lure of extremism, a top Islamic scholar has said.
Farhan Nizami, the director of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, which has links with Oxford University, accused British Muslim parents of keeping their children alienated from mainstream society, and exposing them to radical Islamic groups.
“Immigrant communities have to do more to get integrated, particularly on issues of language and education,” said Nizami, a key adviser on Islam to the Prince of Wales. He appealed to Muslim parents to do more to avert the danger of their children becoming fanatics.
“Muslim families have to realise the importance of education for their children and make an effort to push them into achieving more,” Nizami was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
His comments come just weeks after the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, warned that radical Islam is filling the “moral vacuum” created by the decline of Christian values in Britain.
The EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report last month revealed that Britain has become the hub of Islamic terrorism across Europe, and turned the country into a fertile ground for jihadist recruiters.
According to the London-based Civitas think-tank, Islamist extremists in the UK are openly using websites to recruit children for militancy.
It has forced the government to develop “deradicalisation” programme to tackle people who have been drawn into Islamist extremism in Britain.
Britain is also considering a massive database to store all emails, phone calls, text messages and Internet use by its citizens in an attempt to tackle terrorism.
Bureau Report
