Salma Qureshi, a thirtysomething computer programmer and British Muslim, is studying to become Britain's first female imam:

"I'm quite religious but at the same time I'm quite a liberal person myself," she says.

She said that when she was younger, she could not "differentiate what was religion and what was culture," and that she thought Islam imposed "too many restrictions" on women. "It's only afterwards I realised that this is all cultural - religion doesn't really stop women doing anything," she added.

Good luck to her, I say. If she can provide a role model for an Islam that's in harmony, rather than at odds, with the values of liberal society, it should take some of the wind out of the sails of extremists (on all sides).

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