Mosque extremism is an issue hiding in plain sight

The phrase “hidden in plain sight” could have been coined to describe the way extremist preachers are given a pulpit while nothing is done to deal with the problem — and while the same mosques that host these preachers are then handed public funding.

Our report this week is damning in exposing how money is handed over to mosques which provide a platform for extremism.

But nothing we report has been hidden or kept from public view. Indeed, the issue is precisely that these preachers are able to spout their hateful views in public — and that no one considers their words to be in any way controversial.

On one level this is a failure of oversight — but the question that must then be raised is: oversight by whom? The mosques themselves ought to be self-policing. But we have learned over many years that too many mosques actively promote such hatred. Those responsible are the last people we can expect to tackle extremism.