Blair launches fund to improve teaching of Islam

Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Monday June 4, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Tony Blair today launched a passionate defence of Islam as a religion of "moderation and modernity", as he announced a £1m government fund to aid teaching of the religion and train UK imams.

The prime minister, in his final days in Downing Street, placated an audience of more than 200 Muslim scholars by saying that many Christians as well as Muslims disagreed with his foreign policy over Afghanistan and Iraq.

But he said the voices of "calm" Islam had been hijacked by extremists, who were no more representative of the true faith than Christians in the Middle Ages who used torture to convert people to their faith.

And he praised a book called The Muslim Jesus as highlighting where the two religions overlapped.

Mr Blair was opening a two-day conference on Islam hosted by Cambridge University, which also marked the publication of a government-commissioned report into the teaching of Islam in the UK.

Written by leading scholar Dr Ataullah Siddiqui for the Department of Education, it says that teaching of Islam fails to reflect the "realities" of the faith in modern day multicultural Britain, instead focusing too narrowly on the Middle East.

The PM pledged a fund to implement the report's findings, such as helping train Muslim imams in UK universities to reduce mosques' reliance on overseas ministers who may not understand British society or speak good English.

The government will also announce that Islamic studies will be designated "strategically important" to the British national interest - allowing tighter official scrutiny of university courses.

Mr Blair told the conference its purpose was to "let the authentic voices of Islam ... speak for themselves.

The PM said most Muslims complained more about the image of their faith as violent and extremist than about UK foreign policy.

"The predominant complaint [from Muslims] is about how they believe their true faith is constantly hijacked and subverted by small, unrepresentative groups who get disproportionately large amounts of publicity."

But the prime minister was himself attacked over the conference.

The Labour peer Lord Ahmed of Rotherham accused Mr Blair of using Cambridge University as a "front" to organise the event and exclude political opponents.

He told Radio 4 "The conference is fronted by Cambridge University, but organised by Downing Street, the Foreign Office, and the communities department, who have deliberately chosen to exclude those Muslims who disagree with government policy."

The peer, who has not been invited to the conference, said Mr Blair was engaging in "divide and rule" tactics.

"It's a colonial style of governing," he added. "Frankly, it's appalling that Cambridge University is being used for political purposes to see off a last speech."

However, Catriona Laing of Cambridge University's interfaith programme, insisted there had been no political interference.

"Cambridge University has been planning this conference for some time now.

"We have sent out invitations in consultation with all the partners that we're organising this conference with, and we have got a range of academics, policy-makers, thinkers, religious leaders, from all over the world coming."

Gordon Brown, the prime minister in waiting, is hosting a reception for the conference tonight, while David Cameron will address it tomorrow.

Among the 200-plus clerics invited from around the world are the grand mufti of Egypt, Shaykh Ali Gomaa, and the grand mufti of Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric.