AN announcement by the Prime Minister David Cameron that Ofsted will begin to inspect religious educational institutions, such as madrassahs, has been welcomed in Bradford.

Mohammed Iqbal, the founder and vice chairman of Bradford Matters and president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, said the move would will pave the way for improving community cohesion within cities like Bradford.

Dr Mohammed Iqbal – President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association

“For many of us our faith is very important and we should have nothing to hide in relation to what we teach our children and what we say to our members.

“Sadly, the Prime Minister is quite right when he says that in some madrassahs we have children being taught that they should not mix with people of other religions and we also have cases of children being beaten as highlighted in the media recently.

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“If the madrassahs are not inspected properly then we could run into problems with an increase in radicalisation as seen countries like Pakistan, where madrassahs produced groups like the Taliban,” said Dr Iqbal (pictured).

“Within Britain and the city of Bradford we take great pride in having a very open multi-cultural society.”