- Middle Eastern minister says Europe has been too relaxed about mosques
- He says preachers should be licenced to control who can give sermons
Britain and other European countries should exert more control over mosques to stop them becoming home to radical preachers, according to a top politician from the United Arab Emirates.
Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak al Nahyan, who is minister for tolerance in the Middle Eastern country, says a licensing system should be brought in to tackle radicalisation in Europe.
He said the ‘good intentions’ of authorities in the West had allowed hate clerics and those espousing terrorism to take hold.
Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan said tighter control of mosques was need in Europe
Sheikh Nahyan told German news agency DPA: ‘You can’t just leave a mosque open and allow anyone to go there and to preach. You need to have licences.’
He compared the situation with that in his own country, where the state controls mosques and who can preach in them.
He said the UAE had offered to help train authorities in Europe about how to handle the issue but had yet to be taken up on the offer.
It was suggested earlier this year that imams should be encouraged to give their sermons in English so they could be better monitored.
The Home Office, police and local authorities have been secretly drawing up plans for a massive increase in attempts to turn vulnerable individuals away from terrorism.
The UK government is working on new rules to stop the radicalisation of young Muslims
A new scheme, dubbed Operation Constrain, will involve police and social workers contacting people already on MI5’s databases to assess what danger they pose and what it would take to integrate them into society.
In hotspots for terror suspects such as Birmingham, Manchester and London, local police will be handed details of potential terrorists by counter-terrorism police and MI5 and will visit them in person. A local panel will then decide what interventions could work, it was reported last month.