LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron is launching a five-year plan to defeat extremism, saying it's time to counter the ideology that has attracted so many young people to the Daesh (the so-called IS) group. In a speech on Monday in Birmingham, Cameron said the extremist ideology of the group must be countered so Britain becomes a more cohesive nation in which young Muslims feel they have a stake.
Many people born in Britain have little attachment to the country and that makes them vulnerable to radicalization, Cameron says.
“There is a danger in some of our communities that you can go your whole life and have little to do with people from other faiths and backgrounds,” he says. “So when groups like Daesh seek to rally our young people to their poisonous cause, it can offer them a sense of belonging that they can lack here at home.”
The prime minister announced a study designed to find ways to increase opportunities for young people from ethnic minorities and increase their integration in society.
Cameron also took on the sensitive question of the role Britain's Muslim community should play in fighting Daesh, saying extreme views such as believing in a “Jewish conspiracy” and opposition to “fundamental liberal values” are the gateway to violence.
“There are so many strong, positive Muslim voices being drowned out,” he says. “Ask yourself, how is it possible that when young teenagers leave their London homes to fight for the Daesh, the debate focuses on whether the security services are to blame?”
Thousands of Muslims have left Europe to fight with or support extremists in Syria. British police say more than 700 potential terror suspects have traveled to Syria from Britain and only about half are believed to have returned. — AP
