Secret UK government plans designed to win the "hearts and minds" of young Muslims and to dissuade the vulnerable from resorting to terrorism were strongly criticized by community organizations on Sunday.
Prime Minister Tony Blair has assembled a group of senior civil servants from nine government departments to work on a project, code-named Contest, aimed at about 10,000 young Muslims whom officials fear may be sympathetic to al-Qaida.
The project, details of which were revealed on Sunday in Cabinet documents leaked to the Sunday Times, would lead to an intervention in the political and religious practices of Muslim communities.
Under the plan, radical foreign imams would be vetted abroad, and those who refused to "sign up" for the British way of life would be barred from the country. More moderate spiritual leaders in the UK would receive government support.
The government might fund moderate Islamic newspapers and broadcasters. Young Muslim "ambassadors" would be chosen to project an Islam-friendly image of Britain. The government may also seek to amend the Race Relations Act to make religious discrimination a criminal offense.
Muslim leaders criticized the plan on Sunday. The secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Iqbal Sacranie, said: "Taxpayers' money is better spent addressing the root problems that affect the community, such as education, unemployment, equality and political and social inclusion."
Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission called the project outrageous, adding: "This is an attempt to make Muslims more `government friendly' rather than `British friendly' and it is just not going to work. Who will define who is moderate and who is not?"
Ali Shah of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee said the government's diagnosis of the causes of Muslim disillusionment was too insular. "If you go into any mosque, they are not talking about social deprivation, what they are talking about is Iraq and Palestine and the double standards in the way the government has dealt with both issues."
Shah also said the government had exaggerated the number of potential recruits for al-Qaida.
The Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia warned in a new report of growing alienation among young Muslims. Richard Stone, the commission chairman, said the Whitehall solution represented a top- down approach.
"They don't seem to have significant Muslim voices in this discussion -- and that is a problem," he said.
He said excessive emphasis was being placed on Muslim communities.
According to the Sunday Times, the project was prompted by attacks in March on Madrid commuter trains, and the discovery in London of materials for bombs.
The thinking behind the program was outlined by Cabinet Secretary Andrew Turnbull in a letter to departments on April 6.
"The aim is to prevent terrorism by tackling its causes ... to diminish support for terrorists by influencing social and economic issues," he said.
In a note to the Home Office permanent secretary, John Gieve, Turnbull called for a blueprint to win "the hearts and minds" of Muslim youth.
Turnbull wrote: "Al-Qaida and its offshoots provide a dramatic pole of attraction for the most disaffected. The broader task is to address the roots of the problem, which include dis-crimination, disadvantage and exclusion suffered by many Muslim communities."
Officials were given worrisome statistics at an interdepartmental meeting on May 19. The Home Office found that 16 percent of working-age Muslims had never worked or were long-term unemployed, and more than 40 percent had no recognized educational qualification.
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