David Cameron right on integration call, says Muslim leader

David Cameron is right to want British communities to integrate better, a Muslim leader from the Black Country has said.

Muhammad Yaseen Khan, president of the Wolverhampton Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, backed the Prime Minister's calls for communities to work together to promote British values.

Pakistan-born Mr Khan, aged 64, whose association runs the Bait-Ul-Ata Mosque in Willenhall Road, has previously called for the security services to monitor mosques and root out extremist preaching.

He said: "No religion teaches treachery and treason against the country you live in.

"If you don't mix with your local community, you can't do things properly. For anyone who comes to this country it is in your interests to mix with others in order to have the best chance to get on in life." He also called on parents to pay close attention to what their children view online.

"This is not just good advice to stop someone being radicalised," he said. "It is right to make sure they are not getting involved in criminal or antisocial behaviour."

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association is having a celebration of Eid, the end of the Ramadan month of fasting, with other faiths this Sunday at St Matthew's Church in East Park Way from 12.30pm.

Conspiracy theories of a powerful Jewish cabal or a Western plan to destroy Islam must be challenged in efforts to counter radicalisation, Cameron said

However, Mr Cameron's speech has drawn criticism from other Muslim groups. A spokesman for the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Arzu Merali, said: "Cameron's claims simply reinforce the now widely-held prejudice that Muslim politics and practice are violently inimical to the society we live in.

"Policy after policy from this and previous governments have forced Muslims into silence over valid claims whilst lauding a fictional idea of European supremacy over them and other beleaguered minorities. It is time for a push-back against this divisive and sinister narrative."

And a spokesman for the Hizb-ut-Tahrir organisation, which campaigns for an Islamic caliphate, said: "Like his predecessors, Cameron conflates legitimate religious and political views that Muslims hold with the chaos that has been created in Iraq and Syria.

"You cannot launch a public relations campaign to promote 'British values' whilst using civil, legal and security agencies to forcibly convert people to your 'creed' because you have failed to convince them intellectually."