Calls have been made for a crackdown on radicalisation in prisons after an extremist killer was able to preach hate from his cell.
MPs heard how Muslim taxi driver Tanveer Ahmed had been able to radicalise others from prison after he was jailed for 27 years for murdering Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah last year.
Ahmed drove from his home in Bradford to attack Mr Shah, a member of the Ahmadi community, who he believed had disrespected the prophet Mohammed in a series of online videos.
Labour's Siobhain McDonagh, chairwoman of the all-party parliamentary group of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said preventing radicalisation was a key factor in countering terrorism.
Speaking during Home Office questions, the Mitcham and Morden MP said: "You will be aware of the case of Tanveer Ahmed, who is in prison for murdering the peaceful Ahmadi shopkeeper Mr Asad Shah.
"Yet from his prison cell he is using the phone and letters to continue radicalising people against Ahmadi Muslims.
"Given the increase in anti-Ahmadi extremism, are you confident that you have enough Urdu speakers in the entry clearance section at the High Commission in Islamabad and here in London?"
The Shah family had moved to Scotland from Pakistan in the 1990s to escape persecution for their religious beliefs.
Ahmadis differ from other Muslims in their belief that Mohammed is not the final prophet, which many orthodox Muslims believe is blasphemous.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said tackling radicalisation was a key pillar of the Government's counter extremism strategy.
Responding to Ms McDonagh, she said: "You raise a very important element of our counter terrorism and our counter extremism strategy, which is indeed about counter radicalism and I can reassure you that there is a lot of additional work going on in prisons to ensure that counter-radicalism takes place.
"The Justice Secretary has taken additional steps to work with people who are being radicalised or are the sources of radicalisation, and I hope that will yield positive results."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article