The government must go beyond a narrow security driven approach to tackling extremism, argues the Labour MP for Tooting. Increasing integration and combating extremism within British society is the responsibility of the government, Muslim communities and the wider British public, says Sadiq Khan.
In a Fabian Society pamphlet, Fairness not Favours: How to reconnect with British Muslims, published today, Khan, a government whip, outlines a series of proposals aimed at encouraging a sense of "inclusive Britishness" and "rethinking the role of faith in public life".
Amongst the proposals Khan calls for the introduction of a new religious discrimination law requiring public bodies to promote equality between faiths. Khan wants a forthcoming Single Equality Bill - intended to curb discrimination on grounds of sex, race, gender and disability - to also include religion.
The measures also include the compulsory teaching of Black and Asian history in schools and widening access to English lessons for all members of Britain's ethnic minority communities.
Khan believes British Muslims should give some of the money raised through religious charities to poor white Britons and encourages imams to stress the importance of parental participation in schools.
He also criticises some Muslim organisations for not doing enough to promote the rights of women warning that a failure to challenge the inequalities felt by many British Muslim women not only goes against the ideals of a just society but that it also "has serious consequences for preventing extremism, given the majority of the extremist and radical ideologies that lead young men to turn themselves into human bombs are also deeply misogynist."
