- guardian.co.uk, Thursday September 29 2005 02.30 BST
- The Guardian, Thursday September 29 2005
Professor Ramadan said it had to be recognised that there was mutual mistrust and fear between Muslim and non-Muslims in Britain which needed to be overcome. He said that within the Muslim community there had to be a recognition that British culture needed to be integrated into Islamic education while the curriculum in mainstream schools had to say something positive about the contribution of immigrants to this county.
He challenged everybody to make it a personal responsibility to ask themselves "who did I meet last week who is not from my close personal culture". He said British Muslims had to break out of a "religious, ethnic, intellectual and cultural ghetto".
Prof Ramadan was speaking at the meeting which was held to mark the launch of a Guardian book, Islam, Race and Being British.
His appeal was echoed by Azhar Hussain, a community volunteer from Keighley, who said that catchment areas for schools had to be changed to ensure that schools were not segregated.
The Home Office minister Paul Goggins praised British Muslims for having the courage to face up to the facts of extremism but said that had to be sustained.
