Britain calls on Muslim leaders to fight extremism

The British foreign secretary has called on Muslim leaders to lead the fight against extremism in their countries.

Philip Hammond also warned that tackling extremism by security measures alone was simply dealing with the symptoms of a disease.

“While the West is facing a security problem, the Islamic world is facing an existential challenge. Fundamentalism and moderate Islam are incompatible and only one of them can survive,” he said.

The British official went on accusing a majority of Muslim nations of either ignoring the threat of what called ‘Islamic extremism’ altogether or turning a blind eye to what is going on in their mosques, schools or prisons.

He did not name any individual countries, but Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly accused of allowing an extremist Wahhabism to be taught in its schools.

Hammond, speaking at the Munich security conference, said some Islamic countries had taken up the challenge through effective counter-radicalisation and counter-fundamentalist programs.

The British foreign secretary argued that the fight against extremism would continue even if ISIL was defeated on the battlefield.

Hammond argued the two fundamental causes of extremism worldwide were a lack of a hope, such as a lack of jobs, and also a framework into which that lack of hope could be channeled.

EA