UK government ministers on Thursday dropped plans proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as part of his 12-point anti-terror plan in the wake of the July bombings in London to close mosques used to foment extremism after criticism from the police and religious leaders.
British Home Secretary Charles Clarke proposed the police should have the power to secure a court order requiring trustees of a mosque or other place of worship to stop the activities of extremists or face a temporary closure. It was widely seen as an attempt to avoid a repeat of the case of the controversial Finsbury Park mosque in north London, which was used as a base by Islamist extremists.
But the sharp reaction has forced the government to abandon the idea. Rob Beckley, the Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman on terrorism, warned it would lead to the unhelpful identification of Islam with terrorism, be seen as limiting free speech, and prove futile to enforce.
The Church of England has demanded to know why places of worship were being singled out while the representatives of other religions reminded the government that a struggle for their independence had been fought out through history.
The reaction of the Reverend Graham Sparkes from the Baptist Union was typical of many of the 66 responses.
"Over the centuries, many Baptists have experienced persecution, discrimination, and imprisonment at the hands of the state, in order to secure control over what was preached, where it could be preached, and who could preach. We would be very sensitive towards any proposals that put these hard won freedoms under threat," Sparkes said.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that mosques were being "misidentified and stereotyped as incubators of violent extremism, while the social reality is that they actually serve as centers of moderation."
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion