Muslim leaders are to carry out spot checks and will introduce programmes to fight extremism in the first set of national guidelines for mosques.

The draft guidelines, to be published tomorrow, represent the most radical attempt so far by leaders of the country’s two million Muslims to tackle extremism and introduce an effective system of self-regulation.

The hope is that the new measures will help to prevent young people from being drawn to extremism through extremist teaching in and around unregulated mosques.

Among other proposals, they take a strong line against forced marriages and domestic violence, which are condemned as “unIslamic”, and recommend that women should have access to religious training and positions of leadership in mosques.

The guidelines, in the form of a ten-point code of practice, will be sent out to consultation at Britain’s 1,500-plus mosques before being issued in their final form next March.

The Times has seen a copy of the draft “core standards”, drawn up by the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, an alliance of four of Britain’s top Muslim organisations set up in June last year to provide a “positive influence” for British Muslims.

The standards have emerged from the working groups set up by the Government in an attempt to tackle Islamic extremism after the July 7, 2005, London bombings.

But there has been no input from the Government into their content. Muslim leaders have deliberately distanced themselves from ministers as part of their determination to make their community self-regulating.

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, one of the organisations behind the core standards, told The Times that Muslim leaders wanted to avoid British mosques going down the same road as countries such as Turkey and Egypt, where many imams are employed by the state and preach little more than government policy in their sermons.

Many of the country’s smaller mosques are wary of government intervention and have little knowledge of legal requirements such as the laws on incitement to racial hatred, child protection, employment discrimination and health and safety. Muslim leaders believe that it is essential to reach these mosques, but that government involvement must be nonexistent if their trust is to be gained.

One hope is that the new standards on religious training will give rise to a pool of home-grown imams. Although the smaller mosques might have a part-time imam, larger ones have two or three. There are thought to be more than 2,000 imams in Britain and, of these, about 1,700 trained abroad.


Under the new guidelines, mosques will agree to random visits by trained teams to check that standards are being met. They will have to commit themselves to “open, democratic, accountable management” and introduce policies on equality, child protection and racial and religious harassment. Mosques will have to agree to give women access to religious and scholarly training.

Mosques will also pledge to have programmes that “promote civic responsibility of Muslims in wider society” and that “actively combat all forms of violent extremism within the society at large”. They must also agree to provide Islamic awareness training for local communities and to publicise forced marriages and domestic violence as “unIslamic”.

Besides the Muslim Council of Britain, the other organisations backing the new standards for the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board are the Al-Khoei Foundation, the British Muslim Forum and the Muslim Association of Britain.

Manazir Ahsan, director-general of the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, and chairman of the board’s steering committee, said: “We want to train our younger generation so that they feel attracted towards the mosque and understand the role of the mosque as not just a place for prayer but of development, community work, interfaith dialogue and social activities.”

Under the new guidelines, mosques will agree to random visits by trained teams to check that standards are being met. They will have to commit themselves to “open, democratic, accountable management” and introduce policies on equality, child protection and racial and religious harassment. Mosques will have to agree to give women access to religious and scholarly training.

Mosques will also pledge to have programmes that “promote civic responsibility of Muslims in wider society” and that “actively combat all forms of violent extremism within the society at large”. They must also agree to provide Islamic awareness training for local communities and to publicise forced marriages and domestic violence as “unIslamic”.

Besides the Muslim Council of Britain, the other organisations backing the new standards for the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board are the Al-Khoei Foundation, the British Muslim Forum and the Muslim Association of Britain.

Manazir Ahsan, director-general of the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, and chairman of the board’s steering committee, said: “We want to train our younger generation so that they feel attracted towards the mosque and understand the role of the mosque as not just a place for prayer but of development, community work, interfaith dialogue and social activities.”

Under the new guidelines, mosques will agree to random visits by trained teams to check that standards are being met. They will have to commit themselves to “open, democratic, accountable management” and introduce policies on equality, child protection and racial and religious harassment. Mosques will have to agree to give women access to religious and scholarly training.

Mosques will also pledge to have programmes that “promote civic responsibility of Muslims in wider society” and that “actively combat all forms of violent extremism within the society at large”. They must also agree to provide Islamic awareness training for local communities and to publicise forced marriages and domestic violence as “unIslamic”.

Besides the Muslim Council of Britain, the other organisations backing the new standards for the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board are the Al-Khoei Foundation, the British Muslim Forum and the Muslim Association of Britain.

Manazir Ahsan, director-general of the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, and chairman of the board’s steering committee, said: “We want to train our younger generation so that they feel attracted towards the mosque and understand the role of the mosque as not just a place for prayer but of development, community work, interfaith dialogue and social activities.”