UK Muslim Forum Fights Extremism

Abdul Bari called Blair's argument "unhealthy debate.

The forum, set up by fourteen Muslim groups including the Muslim Parliament and the Association of British Muslims, is tasked with commissioning research into why people are attracted to extremist ideologies.

It will also be working to promote principles of tolerance, justice and citizenship while maintaining identity of the Muslim minority.

"We are aware that some from the Muslim community may be uneasy about the creation of a new body, arguing that Islam is not to blame for extremism and that Muslims as a whole cannot be held responsible for acts of terror committed in the name of their religion," the founders said in a press release.

Though admitting this was true, the forum said that extremists were using Islam to justify their practices.

"This places a particular responsibility on Muslim citizens to expose these false claims and to refute such false justifications for acts that are clearly against Islam," it added.

British Muslims launched on Tuesday, June 27, an independent self-regulatory body to supervise mosques and train imams in the European country.

The new body was one of many recommendations made by a taskforces on extremism set up in the wake of the terrorist London attacks.

Some 52 people were killed and hundreds wounded when four British-born Muslims detonated bombs in their rucksacks in coordinated attacks on London's buses and underground trains on July 7, 2005.

British Muslims, estimated at some 1.8 million or nearly three percent of the population, had denounced the grisly attacks, saying there was no justification whatsoever to take innocent lives.

"Unhealthy Debate"

London Underground staff observe a minute's silence outside Russell Square tube station in London. (Reuters).

The move comes as British Prime Minister Tony Blair's blame for British Muslims for not doing enough to fight extremism continued to spark furor among the Muslim minority.

"Blaming a community, especially those who have been working for the last five years to bringing sanity in the community, bringing peace and harmony in the community. This blaming is not helpful to us," said Mohamed Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

Bari condemned the July London attacks, but he called anew for a public inquiry to reveal the factors behind the bombings.

"That would allow the country to move on from an unhealthy debate focusing only on extremists," he added, according to the BBC News Online.

Blair said Tuesday, July 4, he was trying to engage with the Muslim minority, but extremism could not be defeated by government alone.

"Government itself cannot go and root out the extremism in these communities," he told a parliamentary committee.

"I am not the person to go into the Muslim community and explain to them that this extreme view is not the true face of Islam."

A survey for The Times newspaper showed on Tuesday, July 4, that a sweeping majority of British Muslims believe there were no circumstances that would justify suicide bombings in Britain and that they would feel shame to learn that a close family member had joined Al-Qaeda.

More than nine out of ten Muslims (92 per cent) say their community makes a valuable contribution to British society.

Many in the some 1.8 million minority blamed UK foreign policy in Iraq for the bombings, which they say were also fuelled by the long-standing alienation and marginalization of Muslims from society.

Silence

Britain fell silent for two minutes Friday in memory of the victims of the London bombings.

Midway through a day full of remembrance events, the nation observed two minutes' silence at noon (1100 GMT), signalled by the 12 midday gongs from Big Ben in the heart of the normally throbbing capital, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Traffic came to a halt, and workers laid down tools or poured out of their office buildings to line the sidewalks in a moving show of remembrance and solidarity.

Solemn commemorations began during the morning rush hour at King's Cross station, where a year earlier the four bombers stepped off a commuter train and split up to carry out their deadly mission.

The King's Cross commemoration was led by London Mayor Ken Livingstone and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, who laid wreaths at the moment of the first bombing — 8:50 a.m. — then bowed their heads in tribute to the dead.

Many commuters paused to remember and to lay floral wreaths, not only at King's Cross but at the other bomb sites — the Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square underground stations and at Tavistock Square, where the packed red double-decker bus was struck.

Memorial plaques were unveiled at all the sites shortly before noon.