Muslim Women Who Can’t Speak English To Be Denied UK Residence

The Prime Minister Mr Cameron has urged an end to the "passive tolerance" of practices which he says leave many Muslim women facing discrimination and isolation.

Muslim women who fail to improve their English face being refused permission to stay in the UK, David Cameron has announced.

The Prime Minister has launched a £20m initiative aimed at helping female members of the Muslim community with their language skills in an attempt to integrate them into the community and help tackle extremism.

However, he has been accused of taking a "clumsy and simplistic" approach to the issue by Labour, who say he has "unfairly stigmatised" a whole community.

The measure would be backed by sanctions for those who did not make progress in improving their knowledge of the language.

He said the lack of integration within British society of some Muslim communities had helped to foster extremism and allowed "appalling practices" such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

Writing in The Times newspaper, the PM said he would not avoid telling the "hard truths" required to confront the minority of Muslim men whose "backward attitudes" led them to exert "damaging control" over women in their families.

He has also announced a review of the role of Britain’s religious councils, including Sharia courts, which has been announced three times before.

Mr Cameron wrote: "All too often, because of what I would call 'passive tolerance', people subscribe to the flawed idea of separate development.