Getting together to tackle the common threat of terrorism and improve intelligence flows, European Union interior ministers called for a European Islam and asked European Muslims to join other elements of society in fighting terror.

"We do want a European Islam," European Commission Vice-President and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told a press conference following the meeting, Reuters reported.

Frattini proposed training imams and blocking of Internet websites deemed to be inciting terrorism.

"That is very important not only to show to the Muslim communities that we fully respect other religions, other faiths, but we also want them to respect national laws, European laws and fundamental rights, and first of all right to live," he said.

Interior ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Finland, Portugal and Slovenia as well as Frattini and EU's counter-terrorism coordinator Gijs De Vries came together in London a week after British police said they had foiled an alleged plot to blow up US-bound planes.

British media said the 24 suspects were British-born men, mostly of Pakistani origin.

A British court on Wednesday, August 16, gave police more time to question 23 of the suspects while the 24th has been released.

Counter-terrorism

Frattini said the EU commission, the executive arm of the 25-nation EU, will propose new counter-terrorism measures to detect liquid explosives and expand data sharing on airline passenger.

"Explosives is an area of particular vulnerability despite the important success achieved by the British authorities," he said.

A British Home Office spokeswoman said that the ministers released 350,000 euros (450,000 dollars) for urgent research into detecting liquid explosives following Wednesday's meeting.

Frattini also proposed expanding a system of sharing data on passengers currently involving the European Union, the United States, Canada and Australia.

"Our ideas are to extend to the European territory, to all flights into, through, from the territory of one or more member states and perhaps including the intra-EU flights."

Other measures were aimed at blocking Internet websites preaching extremist ideas and at forming a European "rapid reaction force" of experts who could be sent to any member country hit by a terrorist attack, Frattini said.

The proposals will be submitted to an informal meeting of EU interior ministers in Finland, which holds the current rotating EU presidency, on September 20-22 with a view to implementing them throughout the 25-member bloc.

Profiling

The EU commissioner said the European bloc should also explore "positive profiling of passengers" in order to make border controls more efficient.

He said the profiling would be based on biometric information, denying that the measure was targeting racial or religious groups.

"It has nothing to do with religious beliefs or discrimination," he said.

"We could explore positive profiling for passengers allowing them to be checked well in advance in order to make quicker and easier the controls on board," he added, without elaborating.

Such data could include fingerprints or voice characteristics.

British Muslim leaders on Tuesday, August 15, objected to proposals of airport profiling based on ethnicity and religion.

They warned it could alienate the community whose help the government needs in fighting terrorism.

Source:Islamonline.net