Citizenship lessons for young Muslims to help beat extremism

The new lessons will be tested out in several cities at the start of the new term in September, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said.

The initiative - designed to show youngsters there is no conflict between their religion and being British - is part of a package of measures being published today in response to the rise in extremism that led to the deaths of 52 London commuters in the July 2005 bombings.

Building bridges: Prince Charles at the Muslim College in Ealing, West London, with principle Dr Zaki Badawi (file picture). Muslim schools will now give citizenship lessons in a bid to show that Islam and Britishness are compatible

The plans also include a new independent board of academic and theological experts and a group of community leaders to advise on local responses to tackling extremism.

'We have made significant progress working with communities to build an alliance against violent extremists,' Ms Blears said.

'We have a responsibility to ensure that our young people are equipped with the skills they need to stand up to violent extremists.

'This project will help them understand how their faith is compatible with wider shared values and that being a good Muslim is also compatible with being a good citizen in the UK.'

She added: 'We need to encourage and create safe places for sensible debate around issues that extremists can seek to exploit and make sure that young British Muslims recognise that their faith teaches shared citizenship vales.'

Officials said mosque teachers in London, Leicester, Birmingham, Oldham, Rochdale, and Bradford would be trained in using the new materials over the summer.

They will be used alongside traditional lessons about the Koran and focus on 'undermining the violent extremists' argument that there is a fundamental conflict between the West and Islam, and being British and Muslim', they said.

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, an imam with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), said the creation of the community leaders' group had been driven by Muslims rather than the Government.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'We felt we needed something of this nature to help create a better structured approach to how we are educating our children.

'We feel our children need to be taught that they can be proud Muslims and proud young British people.'

'Anything that helps to make our communities stronger should be welcomed - provided that it's not used to isolate, control or change what a community is.'

Sheikh Mogra added: 'This board has to be something owned by us, driven by us but supported by Government. We've made it clear that it's not for Government to touch our theology or touch the way we train our people.'

Last month the Government published a national 'de-radicalisation' programme including advice to town halls to ensure they had systems in place to remove funding or other support from inappropriate groups.