DAVID Cameron has come under fire from a former Tory cabinet minister after he warned British Muslim communities should take more responsibility for countering the threat of radicalisation.

 

Baroness Warsi, who co-chaired the party and had ministerial responsibilities for faith and communities in previous Coalition Government, said the Prime Minister risked demoralising British Muslims following his speech in Slovakia.

She added that Mr Cameron had put "misguided emphasis" on saying that some citizens are quietly condoning Islamist extremism.

Lady Warsi's comments came after the Tory leader told a security conference in Bratislava that the Islamic State (Isil) was reaching out to the disaffected in the UK.

The Prime Minister said: "If you're a troubled boy who is angry at the world or a girl looking for an identity, for something to believe in and there's something that is quietly condoned online or perhaps even in parts of your local community then it's less of a leap to go from a British teenager to an Isi fighter or an Isil wife than it would be for someone who hasn't been exposed to these things."

It has emerged two sisters from Bradford, West Yorkshire, and their nine children had broken into two groups after leaving their husbands behind in the UK, to cross the Turkish border into Syria.

Sisters Khadija, Sugra and Zohra Dawood had been in Saudi Arabia and their husbands have made emotional appeals for their return.

At the weekend, Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury, become the UK's youngest suicide bomber when he carried out an attack in a car in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji.

In an article for The Guardian, Lady Warsi claimed Mr Cameron lacked the credibility to demand that UK Muslims do more to find extremism in their ranks when they lacked support from the Government.

The peer wrote:"My concern is that this call to Muslims to do more, without an understanding of what they already do now, will demoralise the very people who will continue to lead this fight. As one prominent female Muslim activist told me: 'This speech has undermined what I've been doing.'

"David Cameron is right that there are 'some' - a minority within a minority within a minority - who condone the Isis view of the world, but there are many, many, many more of this minority who are fighting a very real and sustained battle, the same battle he is fighting. They know they have to do more, they are willing to do more but they will do it a lot better knowing we are on the same side.

"The government needs to champion them, support them. Only then will it

have the credibility to demand that communities themselves do more."

Lady Warsi blamed Mr Cameron's advisers for not realising how his speech would play out in Muslim communities. She said the misguided emphasis on a call to action "would at best fall on deaf ears, at worst further alienate".

He said cases such as those of the missing Bradford family and Mr Asmal highlighted how young people from Britain are in danger of sliding into violent extremism, encouraged by online propaganda and people who support some of Islamic State's extreme views.

"The cause is ideological," he will say. "It is an Islamist extremist ideology, one that says the West is bad and democracy is wrong, that women are inferior and homosexuality is evil.

"It says religious doctrine trumps the rule of law and Caliphate trumps nation state and it justifies violence in asserting itself and achieving its aims. The question is: How do people arrive at this worldview?

"I am clear that one of the reasons is that there are people who hold some of these views who don't go as far as advocating violence, but do buy into some of these prejudices, giving the extreme Islamist narrative weight and telling fellow Muslims 'you are part of this'.

"This paves the way for young people to turn simmering prejudice into murderous intent."

Mr Cameron accepted that the police and intelligence agencies have a role in preventing people from travelling to Syria but will stress the importance of tackling the factors that lead would-be jihadis to attempt to join IS in the first place.

A Number 10 source said Mr Cameron was making the point that "of course Government has a part to play but so do communities and so do families too".

In the speech, Mr Cameron also said the UK will take i more of the most vulnerable refugees fleeing the violence in Syria.

He said he would "modestly expand" the scheme as people flee the country which has been torn apart by civil war and the Isil.

The UK had previously committed to take in 500 migrants from Syria over three years and sources indicated that the Government was now prepared to accept "a few hundred more".