UK govt will import imams from Pak

LONDON: Moderate Muslim clerics are to be brought in from Pakistan in an effort to combat extremism in British mosques, British home secretary Jacqui Smith has announced. According to the Telegraph, Smith has struck a deal with Islamabad under which respected imams could be invited to help British Muslims counter the fundamentalists. The move is part of the Gordon Brown government's efforts to step up its so-called prevent agenda, which is aimed attacking jihadi propaganda in Muslim communities. In a newspaper interview at the weekend, Smith said: "The vast majority of British Muslims have a Pakistani heritage. If we work with the government there, we can win the arguments. "We need to do more to tackle those places where radicalisation is developing — in prisons, schools, higher education — so that people are getting the right messages about what it means to be a British Muslim. "We will also work to ensure we identify vulnerable people being groomed for terror — in the same way we protect young people from being dragged into crime and abuse." Smith said at the weekend that police and security agencies were monitoring 30 terrorism plots, 2,000 individuals and 200 networks. In a another step, Smith announced that Britain will appoint a new set of officers exclusively to check radicalisation within communities and fight terrorism in the country. UK will appoint 300 extra police officers with the aim to fight terrorism and radicalisation within communities, Smith said. She added the special officers would work to prevent young people being drawn into extremism. Noting that terrorists' threat to Britain was serious and growing despite a series of successful raids and convictions, the home secretary said, adding "We cannot simply arrest our way out of the problem."