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Britain to offer language classes to female Muslim migrants Britain to offer language classes to female Muslim migrants
(about 2 hours later)
LONDON — Britain will fund English language classes for Muslim women migrants in hopes that building community cohesion will help fight extremism. LONDON — Britain’s prime minister says Muslim women must improve their English to better integrate into British society, and suggested some migrants could be deported if they fail to speak the language.
Prime Minister David Cameron says the 20 million pound ($28.5 million) fund will help tens of thousands of women facing social isolation and discrimination. Writing Monday in the Times, Cameron says it is time to end the “passive tolerance” of discriminatory practices and says that language skills will be taken into account on visa applications. Arguing that community cohesion is the best antidote to extremism, Prime Minster David Cameron on Monday pledged to fund English language classes for female migrants. The 20-million-pound ($28.5 million) fund will help tens of thousands of women facing social isolation and discrimination and emphasize that Britain has expectations for those who want to live in the country, Cameron said.
Cameron says Britain will never truly build one nation “unless we are more assertive about our liberal values, more clear about the expectations we place on those who come to live here and ... generous in the work we do to break down barriers.” “At the moment, someone can move here with very basic English and there’s no requirement to improve it over time. We will change that,” Cameron wrote in a commentary in the Times. “We will now say: if you don’t improve your fluency, that could affect your ability to stay in the UK. This will help make it clear to those men who stop their partners from integrating that there are consequences.”
Some 190,000 Muslim women in England speak little or no English. Muslim groups reacted sharply to the proposal, describing the plan as a blunt instrument leveled at their expense and focusing on the extremist minority rather than the peaceful majority.
The program aimed at women is meant to end what Cameron called the “passive tolerance” of discriminatory practices and to challenge the “backward attitudes” of a minority of men. Some 190,000 Muslim women in England speak little or no English. Though Cameron acknowledged that problems of forced gender segregation and social isolation are not unique to Muslim communities, he did not mention other groups.
Cameron’s proposal reflects the challenge the country’s leaders face in trying to defuse the appeal that the Islamic State group holds for many young Britons. Some 800 British citizens have managed to enter Syria in the last four years while another 600 have been caught trying to get there.
Parents who are unable to speak English have less of a chance of preventing radicalization of their children, Cameron argued.
Muslim groups protested that they were being singled out.
“The best way to confront (terrorism) it is to build support within Muslims and support the work done across the country, and not lashing out and denigrating Muslims,” said Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation. “The irony of the prime minister calling for more resources to help migrants learn English when his government cut the funding for English classes in 2011 has not been lost on many people.”
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.