Community leaders must come together to help fight the evils of extremism, an MP has urged during a high-profile event.
Shadow minister for Home Affairs and Counter-Terrorism, Crispin Blunt spoke at the League of British Muslims end of year celebrations, held at Ilford Community Centre, Eton Road, Ilford, on Thursday.
Politicians and faith leaders came together for the event, which was intended to promote community cohesion.
Key note speaker, Mr Blunt told the gathered crowd - which included Ilford MPs Mike Gapes and Lee Scott, Recorder editor Chris Carter, and police deputy borough commander Supt Nick Simpson - that it was not for non-Muslims alone to tackle radical preachers.
He said: “It is for Muslim scholars, Imams and elders in your communities who must set out the theological and cultural errors of a violent interpretation of the Islamic faith - it is not the role of the West to tell Muslims what is Islam and what is not Islam.”
Mr Blunt added that measures to target extremism - such as special rules on detaining suspects - could sometimes have the opposite effect.
He said: “When young British Muslims are arrested on terrorist charges and held for days on end without being charged, when communities see the consequences of a local resident under a control order - when all these things happen there is not only a sense of injustice, but a sense that the community is under siege.
“And it is this sense of injustice which is seized upon by the extremists.”
Community centre chairman Bashir Chaudhry - who also heads the League of British Muslims - said the stirring speech went down well.
The leading Muslim said he disagreed with one point raised by Mr Blunt about a lack of British identity being at the root of some extremism.
Mr Chaudhry said: “We very strongly believe in our faith, and if you’re a good Muslim you would not do anything to harm anyone.
“No religion advocates violence.