£70 million for imams!

Hazel Blears has got a sweet way about her. Now she is on a charm offensive and the mosques of Britain are in her sights. Little Miss Dynamite's on her way!

What I don't follow is why it is necessary for the state to shell out all this cash to "train imams to communicate more effectively" and other such stuff. Is she going to test them after training? Is she going to hang around each mosque on a Friday checking up on the content of the sermon? Will the imams have to speak English?

Basically, is it any business of hers what goes on in a mosque? I can fully appreciate why she is doing this but doesn't it show a calamitous failure on behalf of so-called moderate Muslim organisations that they haven't picked up on the need to do something before now?

Last night on Channel 4, an official from the Muslim Council of Britain was quite happy to say that Saudi backed publishing of extremist material, such as beheading people, was OK for distribution in the Regents Park Mosque! Really? What planet is he from?

And if the Muslim "community" is to get £70 million, what if disfunctional Christian, Jewish or any other bodies were identified as being in need of rectifying grants? Would they get it?

Posted in: Hazel Blears,imams,mosques