After Opposition, UK Drops Mosque Closure Plan

LONDON, December 15, 2005 (IslamONline.net & News Agencies) – The British government dropped on Thursday, December 15, a controversial plan to close down mosques allegedly used by extremists after opposition from police and the Muslim minority.

"I will not seek to legislate on this issue at the present time, although we will keep the matter under review," Home Secretary Charles Clarke said in a written statement to parliament cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He said both Muslim leaders and senior police officers believed strengthening relations between police and the minority would be more effective.

Clarke proposed in October that police should have powers to temporarily close mosques "used as a centre for fomenting extremism," and forcing trustees or registered owners to take action.

Failure to do so would have been a criminal offence, with continued extremist activity potentially leading to the "last resort" of shutting down the venue.

The proposal was part of a 12-point plan of anti-terror measures drawn up in the wake of the July 7 attacks on London's public transport system that killed 56, including four Muslim bombers.

However, it has drawn rebuke and fierce opposition from police and the Muslim minority.

The new decision follows Prime Minister Tony Blair's first lower House of Commons vote defeat in his eight-year tenure in November, over a proposal to hold terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

Not Favored

Clarke's letter followed consultation with 66 people and organizations around Britain, the majority of whom were not in favor.

"There would need to be significant changes to the intentions and wording of the legislation for it to be either desirable or enforceable," said Rob Beckley, the Association of Chief Police Officers' counter-terrorism spokesman.

Graham Sparkes, of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, said his group would be "very sensitive" towards anything that threatened "hard-won" freedoms of expression.

Morag Mylne, convenor of the Church and Society Council of the Protestant Church of Scotland, also more critical.

"The power suggested seems to us to amount to a desire to 'get someone, anyone'.

"We think there is no point trying to adjust or amend the proposal. We believe it should be abandoned forthwith."

The proposal has been severely criticized by opponents including many in Blair's own Labour Party who said they could radicalize the Muslim minority and erode civil rights while doing nothing to make the country safer.

Stereotyped

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, said they have been deeply disturbed that the government was associating "the evil of violence" with their places of worship.

"We therefore feel that mosques are being misidentified and stereotyped as incubators of violent extremism, while the social reality is that they serve as centers of moderation," he said in a statement.

Sacranie stressed that the July 7 bombers were "indoctrinated by a sub-culture outside the mosque."

"The notion of influential 'back-door' mosques is a figment of the imagination."

He asserted that British foreign policy and the "double standards" of London and Washington in their dealings in the Middle East were a major factor in the rise and spread of terrorism.

Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to Washington, said Saturday, November 5, that the Iraq war has fuelled home-grown terrorism in Britain.

"There is plenty of evidence around at the moment that home-grown terrorism was partly radicalized and fuelled by what is going on in Iraq."

A leaked secret memo written by Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Michael Jay warned Blair a year ago that the Iraq war was fuelling extremism at home and making Britain seen as a crusader state.

A report from Britain 's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) further said that events in Iraq "are continuing to act as motivation and a focus of a range of terrorist-related activity in the UK".