Home Secretary Jacqui Smith Wednesday announced plans for an extra 300 counter-terrorism police to target radicalization in Britain. But her announcement, coupled with controversial proposals to seek the help of moderate Pakistani imams, was described as the ‘most blatant breach’ of pre-election campaigning rules by the opposition Conservatives. The Conservatives said they were reporting Smith and other ministers for infringing the rule that civil service resources must not be used in the three-week period before mayoral and local elections on May 1 that could influence the result. Announcing the extra officers, Smith said that they could be used to engage with communities vulnerable to extremism as it was not possible to ‘arrest our way’ out of the terrorist threat. “We need to prevent people from becoming terrorists and supporting terrorists in the first place. That means challenging the sort of ideology that supports terrorism,” the home secretary told BBC. She said it meant working in communities to ‘make sure that those mainstream voices are stronger’ and in ‘identifying people who might be at risk of being drawn into terrorism and violent extremism’. On Sunday, Smith also confirmed a new deal she struck with the Pakistani government last week to allow respected moderate Islamic clerics to be brought over to help imams combat extremism in Britain.http://themuslimweekly.com/newsdetails/fullstoryview.aspx?NewsID=5D044EF481133223312223D5&MENUID=HOMENEWS&DESCRIPTION=UK%20News
