Muslim children who are at risk of being radicalised should be taken into care, London mayor Boris Johnson has said.
Calling for the law to recognise radicalisation as a form of child abuse, Johnson said social services had to be ‘less phobic of intrusion into the ways of minority groups’.
The Conservative London mayor estimated hundreds of children are at risk of being taught ‘crazy stuff’ at home including a ‘mad yearning for murder and death’.
Writing in his Daily Telegraph column, Johnson called for a clearer legal position to be introduced to ensure ‘children who are being turned into potential killers or suicide bombers’ can be taken into care.
‘At present, there is a reluctance by the social services to intervene, even when they and the police have clear evidence of what is going on, because it is not clear that the “safeguarding law” would support such action,’ he wrote.
‘A child may be taken into care if he or she is being exposed to pornography, or is being abused – but not if the child is being habituated to this utterly bleak and nihilistic view of the world that could lead them to become murderers.
‘We need to be less phobic of intrusion into the ways of minority groups and less nervous of passing judgment on other cultures. We can have a great, glorious, polychromatic society, but we must be firm to the point of ruthlessness in opposing behaviour that undermines our values,’ Johnson concluded.
