British Muslims must report concerns about family members or friends becoming radicalised or they risk allowing a terror attack in Britain as deadly as the one in Tunisia, David Cameron has said.
In a passionate intervention, the Prime Minister said that Muslims in the UK “need to act” if relatives are seeing extremist preachers or visiting radical websites.
He also used a statement in the Commons to warn that the government must “raise our game” and ensure that Muslims “want to integrate” into British society.
The Prime Minister also said that Britain will on Friday observe a national minute’s silence for the victims of the Tunisian beach massacre, David Cameron said.
A total of 38 people, including up to 30 Britons, died in the attack, which terror group Isil has claimed responsibility for.
Asked about the possibility of an attack on British soil by a radicalised Muslim, Mr Cameron said: “It reinforces the point that because you’re not necessarily dealing with a network, that anybody who has any information about someone who is going wrong, who is getting radicalised, who is visiting either extremist preachers or looking at extremism online.
“Anyone who is worried about that needs to act, because otherwise it could end in the way that it has in the last few days.”
In other developments:
- Police in Tunisia arrested several associates of Rezgui as they continued the hunt for any accomplices.
- British witnesses insisted a second gunman was involved in the massacre.
- The Tunisian interior minister announced 1,000 armed police officers will be deployed to patrol the beaches used by British and other western holidaymakers.
- Relatives who are still waiting for news of loved ones expressed their anger with the Foreign Office which failed for a fourth day to clarify if they were alive or dead.
- The Metropolitan Police will on Tuesday conduct its largest ever exercise to prepare for a “marauding terrorist attack” on the streets of London.
- Theresa May, the Home Secretary, travelled to Tunisia and laid flowers and observed a period of silence at the scene of the attack.
Mr Cameron delivered a direct message to British Muslims and urged them to “stand up” against extremism.
He said: “I would say to British Muslims the fact is these people are taking your religion of peace and they are perverting it. And that’s the reason for standing up and saying ‘you must not do this. This is not what we believe, this is not what we’re about’.
“And the British Government, which includes Muslims in its number, will back all Muslims who do that. I think we’d make a mistake if we just say, ‘It is those who support violence that we need to confront’.”
The Prime Minister also warned that there are Muslim organisations in Britain that “think a caliphate may not be such a bad idea”.
Mr Cameron vowed to “confront the evil” of Islamist extremism and warned of a “generational struggle between a minority of extremists who want hatred to flourish and the rest of us who want freedom to prosper”.
The Prime Minister said that British holidaymakers are not being advised to stay away from Tunisia’s coastal resorts despite the bloody events seen in Sousse.
He added: “Here in the UK, the threat level remains severe, meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely. But until we have defeated this threat, we must resolve as a country to carry on living our lives alongside.”
It came as a former prison guard described as “one of the good guys” has been named among the British victims.
Stuart Cullen, 52, was on holiday with his wife Christine when he was killed instantly by a bullet wound.
Mrs Cullen, 50, a travel agent for Thomas Cook, was injured but survived the attack and has now returned home to Lowestoft, Suffolk.
The couple, who only arrived in Tunisia the day before the attack, have one daughter, Emma, who works in television production.
Mark Richards, landlord of Mr Cullen’s local pub the King Alfred, said: “We knew him well, he would come here every week. I know everyone says this but he was really was one of the good guys.”