Cameron's Muslim alert

Jun 6 2007 By Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Mail

BRITAIN fails to help immigrants feel part of society, David Cameron warned after a night with a Muslim family in Birmingham.

The Tory leader said Britain needed to face up to the "growing problem of cultural separatism" in this country.

He was speaking at a conference on Islam and Muslims in the World Today at the University of Cambridge.

Both major parties were concentrating on ways of strengthening British identity yesterday, as ministers Liam Byrne and Ruth Kelly argued it was essential to promote a stronger sense of Britishness in a pamphlet published by the Fabian Society.

Mr Cameron highlighted his overnight stay with the Rehman family in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, last month.

He said: "Of course the vast majority of families of recent immigrant origin do feel a strong sense of citizenship and what it is to be British.

"My time in Birmingham with the Rehmans showed that if we want to remind ourselves of British values - hospitality, tolerance and generosity - there are plenty of British Muslims ready to show us."

But the stay also heightened his concern that some Muslims were feeling separate.

"I recently visited a mosque in Birmingham and got some depressing questions about who was really responsible for 9/11 and even 7/7.

"That it was a CIA plot. That Jews had been told to leave the twin towers."