Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to sponsor a conference on the nature of Islam, and the use of Islam by extremists to justify their actions.

We continue to work with a range of community and faith groups to explore concerns across all forms of extremism including Islamist extremism – although we have no plans to sponsor a specific conference. Our work promotes the moderate voices of the vast majority of Muslims and of other faiths across the country who oppose the poisonous rhetoric of extremists.

Last Autumn, the Home Secretary announced a new counter-extremism strategy that goes beyond violence and terrorism. The strategy will aim to build up the public sector and civil society to identify extremism in all its forms, confront it, challenge and defeat it. Although overseen by the Home Office, its implementation will be the responsibility of the whole of government and the public sector, and wider civil society.