Iraqi says UK mosques are too radical

Telegraph:

Muslim groups have dismissed claims by the Iraqi deputy prime minister that the extremist preaching in some British mosques would be illegal in the troubled Middle Eastern country.

Dr Barham Salih commented that some of the mosques he had seen in Blackburn during a visit to the UK as a guest of Jack Straw were highly radicalised, and that it was unsurprising that Britain had problems with extremism.

He made the statement to shadow culture secretary Tobias Ellwood in 2005. "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn," he said. "What I saw ... would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal."

However, a spokesman from the Muslim Association of Great Britain dismissed the comments as ill-informed.

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The government has very little control over the mosques in the UK so I am not all that surprised that some find them too radical. The story does not indicate whether the Iraqi is Sunni or Shia.