JOHN Reid, the Home Secretary, has increased government efforts to win hearts and minds among British Muslims amid fears that radical groups are gaining ground in this country.

JOHN Reid, the Home Secretary, has increased government efforts to win hearts and minds among British Muslims amid fears that radical groups are gaining ground in this country.
The renewed effort against radical Islam emerged amid warnings that recent political debate about Muslim women wearing veils could harm community relations and even trigger outbreaks of violence.
In a largely-unannounced propaganda campaign, the Home Office is now using CDs, websites and even podcasts to promote moderation and non-violence among young British Muslims.

The department is effectively financing a website called "The Radical Middle Way" that offers sermons and essays from Islamic preachers who argue against violence. The sermons are also available on the I-tunes website, where many young people download music and "podcast" sound files.
Supporting the work of moderate preachers was one of the key recommendations to emerge from government consultations with Muslim leaders in the wake of the 7 July bombings last year.

While many other recommendations were not implemented, ministers are enthusiastically promoting non-violent imams, albeit without making that support obvious to the public.
One report yesterday suggested that Mr Reid had told ministerial colleagues the government is "losing the battle of ideas" against radical Islam.
But people close to the Home Secretary denied the claim.

Mr Reid's aides say he has long accepted that the government has much to do. "This isn't a battle against Islam, it's a fight of values," said one Home Office source.
"Yes, there are forces within this country that are trying to manipulate the feelings of British Muslims, and we have to do more to combat those forces.

"
Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said again last week that the discussion over extremism is part of an internal debate within Islam. Privately, he is understood to have told ministers to look beyond mainstream groups like the Muslim Council of Britain and be prepared to engage with all sections of British Muslim opinion.
Meanwhile, Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said yesterday political debate about the niqab, the full-face veil worn by some Muslim women, now risks alienating and angering Muslims.

"I, this morning, really would not want to be a British Muslim because what should have been a proper conversation between all kinds of British people seems to have turned into a trial of one particular community, and that cannot be right," Mr Phillips said on BBC 1's Sunday AM.
Writing in a Sunday newspaper, he suggested that the debate over the veil could "trigger the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago. Only this time the conflict could be much worse".

Jack Straw, the Leader of the House, started a heated debate earlier this month when he revealed that he asked veiled women to remove the garment in his constituency surgeries.
Last week, Mr Blair said the veil can be a "barrier to integration", but David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has said the debate risks leaving Muslims feeling "targeted".
Yesterday, Muhammad Abdul Bari, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said the debate about the veil has "regrettably been used to cynically court popularity at the expense of fostering a worryingly anti-Muslim climate in Britain".