EU:European Union states should clamp down on radical imams and internet "hate speech" and train police and teachers on the dangers of Islamist militancy, according to a confidential plan seen by Reuters.
The paper on combating radicalisation, agreed by EU ambassadors, urges governments to monitor "travelling imams inciting to violence, talent spotters, recruiters and other leading figures and their movements within the European Union". It says EU states should collect and exchange information on these "radical inspirational figures", and pay special attention to diminishing their influence in prisons.
"Member states should encourage the Muslim communities not to rely on external imams, but also to ensure that imams are trained and recruited from their own communities," it adds.
Militant Islam is now seen as the major terrorism threat in the 27-nation EU. Authorities are trying to understand how young Muslim men are being radicalised and recruited for operations like the 2004 Madrid train bombings and 2005 suicide bombings in London. Some plots have also featured women.
British authorities last week thwarted an alleged plot to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier, the sixth operation they say they have foiled since the attacks of July 2005.
The EU paper says national security authorities should seek to share more information with partner countries on "individuals who may have been involved in radicalisation, including potential terrorists trained inside or outside the EU".
But in a tacit acknowledgement of the difficulties involved, it says this should be done "with due regard for data protection considerations".
Many EU states have strict privacy rules limiting the sharing of data on individuals with third countries. Some US officials privately express their exasperation with the European approach, saying security arguments should take precedence.
The EU paper - an updated version of an action plan first adopted in 2005 - insists on the importance of promoting moderate, home-grown, Islam and calls on states to support the training of imams in language and teaching skills.
It presses EU states to see how they can help promote moderate Islamic literature to "counteract the effects of the radical message and stress the incompatibility of such a message with the main principles and values of Islam". Member states are urged to ensure that the basic training of all police forces includes teaching on mainstream Islam, radicalisation and recruitment, and to do the same with teachers and social workers.
States are also encouraged to make sure that police forces "reflect the communities which they police". The revised plan, expected to be rubber-stamped by EU governments later this month, urges EU states to check the internet more closely for fundamentalist activities, asking them to consider systematically investigating radical sites.
The document cautiously treads on the issue of free speech. States are only encouraged to "consider" raising the issue of hate speech on internet with web service providers.- ( Reuters)