A CONFERENCE about extremism in Bradford heard that police believe someone from the city has travelled to Syria to take part in the conflict there, but that another two have been prevented from doing the same.

The event, at the Cedar Court Hotel yesterday, was attended by Conservative MP Dr Liam Fox, a former secretary of state for defence, Superintendent Vince Firth, of West Yorkshire Police, and members of the city's major religious communities.

During a presentation, Supt Firth discussed ways extremism, within the Muslim community and far right groups like Britain First and English Defence League, was being tackled in the city.

Supt Firth, who is involved with safeguarding and preventing extremism, spoke of how different faith communities worked with the police to try to prevent extremism from developing, where he revealed work had been done to stop residents travelling to the Middle East.

After his talk he told the Telegraph & Argus that people travelling to Syria do not always do so with the intent of fighting, but are often "groomed" to become fighters once there.

While he was unable to give many details about the Bradford individuals, he said they were thought to have planned to travel to help, rather than fight.

But he added: "People often go to provide aid, but are groomed to get involved in the fighting. The likely outcome for a lot of people who go there is they end up fighting."

He said there was a push in the city to prevent young people from travelling to the Middle East to get involved in conflict. He added: "When we get a sense that people are thinking of going over there to fight we get involved with their family and teachers and try to change their views. A lot of young people we speak to say 'I want to go to Syria' and when we ask why they say 'To fight against the people attacking my Muslim brothers.'

"They often don't realise that it is Muslims fighting other Muslims."

He also revealed that the Crown Prosecution Service is still reviewing evidence over Britain First protests in Bradford last May which saw members of the group "invade" mosques, to decide whether to bring charges.

In his address, Dr Fox said: "I am British, Scottish, white, male, a Christian, a doctor and a politician. Which one of these aspects identifies me? The answer is none by themselves. One of the big problems today is we have a tendency to apply labels to people, by which we think they are completely defined.

"People are unique and have their own talents and aspirations and should not be identified by their religion or who their parents are. A lot of people use broad labels to try to whip up political support. You can only avoid the worst of a community and identify the best when you identify it as a coalition of individuals."

He said extremism could be stopped when immigrant communities wanted to integrate, and when the country allowed them to integrate, adding: "Tolerance is not surrender - there is a difference."