Muslims 'must embrace democracy' says David Cameron

Speaking in Indonesia, the world’s largest Islamic country, the Prime Minister will urge young Muslims to abandon "the dead-end choice of dictatorship and extremism” by forcing their countries to hold elections.

He will claim it would be "the greatest defeat that Al Qaeda could ever suffer,” if more rebel and follow the lead of the young Muslims who sparked the Arab Spring.

Mr Cameron will express his concern for the rights of millions of Christians, especially in Egypt, where the Coptic minority say they are facing increasing persecution. In a strong rebuke to Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood party, Mr Cameron will demand it does not "deny the rights of religious minorities who do not share their specific religious views”.

Egypt’s Coptic community, which accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s 80 million population, has been subjected to a continuous campaign of sectarian attacks since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last February. Thirteen were killed last May and another 10 two months before in attacks by suspected Islamists.

Addressing students at Al Azhar University, Mr Cameron will use Indonesia as an example of how Islam and democracy can go hand in hand. The country became a democracy in 1998 after years of a military dictatorship. It has successfully fought extremism since a bomb in Bali killed more than 200 in 2002. (...)