Britain moves to regulate mosques

It has been found that hate-filled books are sold in mosques

LONDON: In the first government-sponsored attempt to put in place a system of regulating Britain’s over 1,300 mosques to prevent radicalisation, a new body of four major Muslim groups formed after the July 7 London bombings has drafted proposals on core standards and constitutions for the mosques.

The new proposals have been drawn up by the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Body (MINAB), set up by the Al-Khoei Foundation, the British Muslim Forum, the Muslim Association of Britain and the Muslim Council of Britain.
 
The draft constitution for the regulatory body proposes increasing the skills and competencies of imams, developing mosques as centres of community cohesion, citizenship and dialogue and strengthening accountability and governance.
Urging mosques to cooperate, Hazel Blears, communities secretary, said: “Strong mosques will be better able to withstand attempts to hijack them by certain groups supporting violent extremist interpretations of Islam. The changes are important because they are coming from within the community itself.”

Meanwhile, new research by think-tank Policy Exchange has found that hate literature calling for jihad, beheading of apostates and stoning of adulterers is freely available in several important mosques in Britain. The research, published on Monday in a report titled The Hijacking of British Islam, is based on visits to nearly 100 places of “important Islamic religious institutions”, including leading mosques, in various parts of Britain.