Mohammed Shafiq says David Cameron has failed to engage the Muslim community

Mohammed Shafiq presenting on the Ummah Channel

Mohammed Shafiq, the Chief Executive of the Rochdale-based Ramadhan Foundation, has responded to the Prime Minister's speech on extremism‏ saying David Cameron has failed to engage the Muslim community.

Mr Shafiq, a regular contributor on TV, radio, online and also newspaper columnist, said: “The Prime Minister's speech has once again failed to engage the Muslim community and he has peddled the same lines which we have seen from politicians since 2001. He has claimed it is not just about legislation but successive governments have passed over ten terrorism related bills since 9/11; and we are about to see another terrorism related bill.

"In terms of ISIS we are in total agreement with the Prime Minister, they are a barbaric and evil entity and their ideology of violence is what we must confront. They have distorted Islamic teaching to suit their agenda and we as Muslims must be doing more to confront them. That work is already happening and until we can defeat the ideology we must all do more.

"Successive governments have also conflated security/extremism with integration and cohesion which I believe is the wrong debate. If Louise Casey will seriously listen and understand the concerns of British Muslims then we are prepared to work with her; if she will not this will be another failed government exercise.

"Passing the snooper charter, penalising ordinary citizens and taking their civil liberties away will fail to defeat terrorism. Building communities, trust between Muslims and the police is what will stop terrorism.

"There has been no engagement with the British Muslim community on this speech and terrorism in general, this strategy will fail unless British Muslims are consulted and our concerns addressed. Biased Foreign policy decisions by our government are a contributing factor in the threat of terrorism and extremism, ignoring this does a disservice to all decent people.

"Politicians using the British Muslim community as a political football will be resisted."