Mixed reaction to Oldham meeting

Ms Blears met with a cross-section of the community

There has been a mixed reaction to a meeting on Tuesday between Home Office Minister Hazel Blears and the Muslim community in Oldham.

The talks were the first in a series to discuss the impact of the London bombs on communities across the UK.

Faith leaders, young people, politicians and the police addressed concerns over extremism as well issues raised by efforts to prevent further attacks.

Councillor Riaz Ahmed described the talks as very positive and said he was glad there was "no intention to demonise the Muslim community".

Mr Ahmed - who was mayor of Oldham during race riots in 2001 - said Ms Blears agreed there were "a lot more good than bad elements of the Muslim community".

"Hazel Blears has obviously come to listen and she is going back with a list of ideas," he said.

"We need a confident and positive Muslim community to help the police and intelligence agencies to weed out the extremist elements."

Good start

Community activist Mohammed Miah said Ms Blears was right to say that Muslims needed to take more responsibility so extremists do not get involved.

He said Muslims had been harmed by those who carried out the London attacks - but was left afraid by a police approach which appeared to "victimise" Muslims.

You get an understanding that she's just paying lip service Zahid Maqbool Sub editor, The Revival Blears seeks to reassure Ethnic groups 'not target'

He called for changes to teachings in the whole education system, not just the mosques Ms Blears had talked about.

"This is an education issue," he said. "We need to educate youngsters and Islam needs to be taught by people who know and understand moderate Islam."

Irfan Chishti, an imam in Rochdale and a school teacher of religious education in Rochdale said the meeting was a "good start".

"That's a positive move and we have to give her credit for that," he said.

He added he would like see the issue of education in mosques looked at as soon as possible.

"There are mosques up and down the country which are teaching people not Islam, they're just teaching people how to read the basics of how to read the texts, that isn't enough."

Straight answers

Young Muslim women present welcomed the opportunity of having a platform for their views.

Ms Blears began the day by meeting civic leaders

But Rasheda Khatun, 20, said she was worried about harassment of Muslim women since the attacks.

"I just told her how Muslim women in Oldham are feeling and how we have had to actually adjust our lifestyles because of the atrocities and when we walk out on the streets we feel nervous, we don't feel confident as usual to like go to the grocers, to go to the pharmacist."

Other delegates came away from the meeting with criticism for Ms Blears.

"You get an understanding that she's just paying lip service," said Zahid Maqbool, sub editor of The Revival, a magazine for Asian youths published in Oldham.

"She was jotting notes down for the first few minutes and after that she wasn't," he said.

"The concerns that we have with regards to policies such as stop-and-search, the non-acknowledgement of international foreign policy and the new labelling of Muslims as moderate and extreme, she did not really answer those questions in a way that I consider to be an appropriate fashion," he said.