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British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the government is trying to keep the Muslim community on side as a Sunday newspaper suggested Britain might be harboring as many as 10,000 al-Qaeda supporters.
Speaking on a BBC television program on Sunday, Blair said al-Qaeda militants were living in Britain, as they were in every European country, but he said that he did not know how many there were in Britain.
"They pose a threat, a serious threat to us all. It's a constant danger," Blair said. "We need to try and make sure that in our own country we're in proper dialogue with the Muslim community."
"The leaders of that community are very responsible people, but they are under enormous pressure from those within their ranks who say -- it's only a very, very small minority -- but who push this extremist line," Blair said.
Blair made the remarks following Thursday's arrest by British police of Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri on an extradition warrant at the request of the US authorities, which wants him on terror charges. Abu Hamza preached a radical message from a north London mosque and openly supported Osama bin Laden.
The Sunday Times revealed a government document codenamed "Contest," which the paper said was designed to tackle the growing threat of Muslim extremism and win the "hearts and minds" of young Muslims.
Central to the plan is an offensive on the Muslim community's spiritual leaders. Radical foreign imams will be vetted and those who refuse to sign up to the British way of life will be barred. Instead, moderate spiritual leaders will be funded and enlisted to the government's cause.
In the drive to create a new generation of home-grown moderate clerics, the document sets out a plan to provide government-subsidized training for British imams, according to the document.
(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2004)
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