The British government is planning to set up special intelligence units to monitor Muslims nation-wide to better detect extremists and thwart eventual attacks, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The Muslim Contact Units, staffed by London's Metropolitan Police Special Branch officers, will be established in areas including Yorkshire, north-west England and parts of the Midlands, the Guardian reported.
"Deep knowledge of Muslim communities is rare in the service," a senior police officer with knowledge of the scheme told the Guardian. "If you are going to understand who is extreme and who is dangerous, which are different (ideas), you have to understand the community," the officer was quoted as saying
"Unless you know the subject well and what they are saying, often in Arabic or Urdu, and what the context is, you are not going to get a feel for it," the source said.
He stressed that the squads would be open about their work. "It is not about spying."
The police and Home Office said a Muslim Contact Unit operating in London has already helped thwart extremist attempts to recruit young British Muslims to violent jihad, by working with Islamic communities, the Guardian said.
The establishment of the special units is one of the first concrete counter-terrorist measure to emerge after the July 7 London bombings on three subway trains and one bus that claimed the lives of 56 people conference plans announced
Britain is considering an international conference on how to snuff out Islamic extremism, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday as his government unveiled a wave of new measures in response to the London bombings.
Addressing parliament, Blair noted that only global action could properly tackle the problem.
"We are also looking at the possibility of holding a conference, which will bring together some of the main countries who have various concerns and who have been closely involved in the issues, in order to try and take concerted action across the world to try to root out this type of extremist teaching," he said.
Downing Street said later that no date had been set for the conference.