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» Monday, July 18, 2005

London bombs/Terror

Asked about the Prime Minister's comments that it was not right to say that the bombings had nothing to do with Islam, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said he was surprised that people were still asking about this. The Prime Minister had said since last week that we all had to recognise where this perversion of Islam came from. We had to recognise that we all had to stand together in order to deal with that, including the Muslim community. Much more importantly the Muslim MPs who had seen the Prime Minister, many of the leading figures within the Muslim community over the past few days had said that it was not enough just to condemn the bombing and that the Muslim community itself had to act. That was indeed part of the reason for the meeting with the Prime Minister and the opposition leaders tomorrow. The 4 Muslim MPs and 5 Muslim peers would also attend the meeting. Asked what the Government expected of the Muslim leaders at the meeting, the PMOS said that would become clear after tomorrow's meeting. The important thing was that we recognised that words in themselves, whilst welcome, were not sufficient. We needed to have action within the communities in order to, as the Prime Minister had said on Saturday, take on, in a reasoned argument, the false propaganda which had been put about at a local level and at an international level. We had to challenge the extremist viewpoint. Part of that challenge was at a security level and part of that was at a political level as well.

Briefing took place at 15:45 | Read whole briefing | Comments (0)

London Bombs / Terror

Asked if there was a list of who was attending tomorrow's meeting of Muslim leaders, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that we had not got a final list available yet. The leaders of the main opposition parties would join the Prime Minister where they would collectively listen to what the Muslim leaders had to say then try and reach a consensus about how we carried it forward. We would carry it forward not just in terms of expressions of solidarity but also aim to in a practical way as well.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Read whole briefing | Comments (4)

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» Monday, July 18, 2005

London bombs/Terror

London Bombs / Terror

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