The Daily Telegraph

Be clear in countering ideology, says Welby

- By Steven Swinford DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR

‘For the last 500 years religious traditions and scriptures have been twisted and misused by people’

MUSLIM leaders should take responsibi­lity for countering the religious justificat­ion for atrocities committed in their name, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said in the wake of the London Bridge terrorist attack.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said that politician­s should not just say that the attacks have “nothing to do with Islam”, adding that the ideologica­l basis for atrocities should not be overlooked.

He said that failing to acknowledg­e the role played by Islam in such attacks was similar to failing to accept Christiani­ty’s role in the Srebrenica massacre. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “For the last 500 years religious traditions and scriptures have been twisted and misused by people.

“Sometimes the way in which religious leaders of all the major faiths have behaved permits and occasional­ly encourages that.

“If something is happening in our own faith tradition we must take responsibi­lity for being very, very clear in countering it.”

Politician­s should not just say “this is nothing to do with Islam”, he added, saying that the ideologica­l basis should not be overlooked.

“I don’t think it is getting us anywhere, just like saying Srebrenica had nothing to do with Christiani­ty,” he said. “We need to say that we have to take responsibi­lity.”

However, he added: “What is clear over the weekend is the extraordin­ary level of condemnati­on by every significan­t Muslim leader we know.”

He said that some of those dealing with the terrorism threat suffered from “a lack of religious literacy” and were unable to put themselves “in the shoes of religious believers”. Sajid Javid, the Communitie­s Secretary, also insisted that British Muslims must do more than simply condemn terror.

He said they have a “unique burden” to tackle extremism after the London Bridge attack.

Mr Javid, the son of a Muslim bus driver, said that after every terror attack linked to Islamist extremism “a lot of well-meaning people” say the atrocities have “nothing to do with Islam”.

Mr Javid said that statement is correct but that “speaking as a Muslim myself, we need to ask ourselves searching questions” and have the “courage” to have “difficult conversati­ons” about extremism.

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