9:47am Wednesday 30th July 2008
By Neil Phillips
VIOLENT EXTREMISM in the Muslim community is set to be tackled with a series of community projects unveiled by Wycombe District Council this week.
The projects will be funded by government money and some will be trying to reach youngsters before they become vulnerable to radicalisation.
Organisations that applied for funding, such as Action 4 Youth, Buckinghamshire New University and Wycombe Race Equality Council, were asked to take into account four different themes.
These included working with children and young people between five and 15 years old, strengthening participation and leadership in the community, developing inter-community and inter-faith co-operation, and working with vulnerable groups such as short term offenders.
Karen Satterford, chief executive of WDC, explained the ten projects chosen, including the Muslimah Empowering Women and Girls initiative, were taking measures to prevent any future extremism.
She said: "Things like the Muslimah project have been supporting young women and girls to question extremist views, to ask those sort of questions. To challenge those sort of things when they come up in conversation."
A total of £144,500 is being spent on projects in the coming year, with more funding allocated for a further two years.
Last year the area received funding for a similar Pathfinder' project to target extremism following the terror raids of August 2006.
But the latest initiative is one of many rolled out across the country, and the council says it has nothing to do with extremist activity in the area. It explained the funding was administered on the basis of how many Muslim people lived within the district.
Cllr Tony Green, cabinet member for younger and older people , said: "I don't think we're saying there's a problem in this area."
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