Cameron urges British Muslims to help fight extremism

LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron Friday warned that the terrorist threat in Britain is ‘as serious as it ever has been’ and urged the Muslims in the country to help fight extremism, a media report said.

In his New Year’s message, the prime minister said that police and security officers were working ’round the clock’ to combat the threat of a terror attack.

He also stressed the need to do more in the coming year to counter the spread of extremism among Britain’s young Muslims, Daily Mail reported.

“For many years now we have been aware of the threat we face from international terrorism. Recent arrests show that the threat is still very much with us. And it is as serious today as it ever has been,” he said.

“As we enter the New Year our police officers, together with their colleagues in the security and intelligence agencies, are working round the clock to foil plots that would do terrible harm to our people and our economy.”

His comments echo recent public warnings of the continuing threat of terrorist attack by the director general of MI5, Jonathan Evans, and the Chief of MI6, Sir John Sawers.

Cameron said that while the police and security services had the ‘unstinting’ backing of the government, they also depended upon the support of the public.

“Together we will defend our values and way of life and defeat those who threaten them,” he said.

“But we must ask ourselves as a country how we are allowing the radicalisation and poisoning of the minds of some young British Muslims who then contemplate and sometimes carry out acts of sickening barbarity.

“And the overwhelming majority of British Muslims who detest this extremism must help us to find the answers together.”

On the economy, the prime minister warned Britain faces a year of ‘heavy lifting’ to get the budget deficit under control.

He said the Coalition had ’stopped the rot’ since the election and that 2011 could be ‘the year that Britain gets back on its feet’ but he acknowledged it would be a ‘difficult year’ for many people.

He insisted that Britain has a ‘really bright future’ provided the budget deficit left by Labour is tackled.

But he acknowledged that ‘a lot of the heavy lifting will happen in 2011′, adding: “2011 is going to be a difficult year, as we take hard but necessary steps to sort things out.”