Cameron announces 'anti-extremism' plans

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that the extremist ideology of the self-declared "Islamic State" (IS) would be countered with a five-year strategy that included the delivery, as promised, of more resources for some of the country's poorest communities with large Muslim populations. He called the battle against extremism as the "struggle of our generation."

The prime minister declared in a speech delivered in Birmingham that Britain needed to become a more cohesive nation in which young Muslims felt they had a stake, instead of feeling attracted to joining IS in the Middle East. He said his campaign was designed to include measures to address "failures of integration" among Britain's growing Muslim community.

Cameron also asked for Internet companies, including social media platforms, to join the fight against extremism. The Conservative leader also said that Britain needed to rethink what was happening in its overcrowded prisons, where many extremists were being recruited.

'Homegrown extremists'

Cameron further explained that some communities in Britain had little attachment to the country, which made them vulnerable to alienation and radicalization, resulting in the rise of "homegrown extremists" in the UK.

"This is what we face: a radical ideology that is not just subversive but can seem exciting, one that has often sucked people in from non-violence to violence, that is overpowering moderate voices within the debate and which can gain traction because of issues of identity and failures of integration," he said.

'Dreadful death cult'

He also delivered a harsh warning to young people who might consider joining the group:

"You won't be some valued member of a movement. You are cannon fodder for them. They will use you. If you are a boy, they will brainwash you, strap bombs to your body and blow you up. If you are a girl, they will enslave and abuse you."

British police estimate that some 700 potential terror suspects have traveled to Syria from the UK.

"We've got to defeat the narrative of extremism, even when it's not connected to the violence. Because it's the narrative that is the jumping-off point for these young people to then go and join this dreadful death cult," Cameron said.

Role of Muslims in combatting extremism

The prime minister also took on the somewhat sensitive question of the role Britain's Muslim community should play in fighting Islamic State, saying that extreme views such as believing in a global "Jewish conspiracy" and opposition to "fundamental liberal values" were the gateway to violence. His remarks came as Muslims around the world marked the end of Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that follows that holy month of Ramadan.

Thousands of Muslims have left Europe to fight with or support IS extremists in Syria. British police said that more than 700 potential terror suspects had traveled to Syria from Britain and only about half were believed to have returned. Britain's security threat level raised last year to its second-highest setting, which deems a terrorist attack to be "highly likely".

Parliament to debate UK airstrikes in Syria

Prime Minister Cameron had said earlier that he wanted Britain to do more to help the United States destroy Islamic State in Syria, government sources said that he was expected to seek parliamentary approval to extend anti-IS bombing missions into Syria.

Britain currently only conducts airstrikes in neighboring Iraq - although it emerged last week that British pilots embedded within the US Air Force had conducted raids over Syrian territory, prompting renewed debate in the House of Commons.

ss/msh (AP, Reuters, dpa)