British Prime Minister David Cameron believes that the Muslim community has to do more to combat Islamic extremism.
A spokesman for Cameron said the prime minister agrees with statements made by Sajid Javid, the U.K.’s secretary of state for culture, on BBC Radio 5 Live over the weekend.
“The lazy answer would be to say that this has got nothing whatsoever to do with Islam or Muslims and that should be the end of that. That would be lazy and wrong. You can’t get away from the fact that these people are using Islam, taking a peaceful religion and using it as a tool to carry out their activities,” said Javid, who is of Muslim heritage but practices no religion.
In an interview with Sky News, Javid said it is on the Muslim community to do more to deal with terrorists.
“All communities can do more to try and help and deal with terrorists, try and help track them down, but I think it is absolutely fair to say that there is a special burden on Muslim communities, because whether we like it or not, these terrorists call themselves Muslims,” Javid said.
Cameron’s official spokesman said he agrees with Javid’s points: “He would agree with the points that the secretary of state for culture, media and sport was making.
“Of course that is an important part of the Prevent strategy. That in no way detracts from the fact that Islamist extremism is a perversion of the Muslim faith,” the spokesman said, according to the Guardian.
Muslim families are also seeing a “small number of their relatives” traveling abroad to join radical groups, adding that “it is that community whose religion is being warped,” Cameron’s spokesman said.
Cameron joined French President Francois Hollande and other world leaders in Paris Sunday for an anti-terrorism rally in which at least 3.7 million marched.
