A GROUNDBREAKING scheme launched in East Lancashire's schools after the September 11 terror strikes is in jeopardy because education chiefs cannot guarantee funding.

The Lancashire Council of Mosques' "Understanding Islam" project was born in 2002 months after the horrific plane strikes in New York to promote community cohesion in the county.

Lancashire County Council agreed to fund the £30,000- a-year scheme which sees education co-ordinator and mother-of-one Anjum Anwar, 49, tour the county's schools talking about Islam, organising mosque tours and training teachers in more detail about the religion.

Last year Blackburn with Darwen Council also made £30,000 available and asked Anjum, from Accrington, to oversee a similar scheme called the Cultural Awareness Project and work closely with the 66 schools in the borough.

Anjum has offered tailor-made workshops, assemblies to over 300 schools including those in Accrington, Blackburn, Darwen and Burnley and 65 mosque visits.

But the project is in danger if funding for Anjum's post cannot be renewed in April. The scheme's best hopes are pinned to a bid for £210,000 Home Office community funding which if successful would fund the project for three years.

However with the funding by no means guaranteed, Anjum is urging education chiefs not to turn their backs on the project. She said: "We look at a host of topics such as Islam and what it is like to be a Muslim and Muslim stereotypes. It would be a shame if something based and launched in East Lancashire cannot continue."

Lancashire County Council, which is backing the mosques' bid for Home Office cash, said it did not know if it could continue funding the project. A spokesman added: "The county council is currently looking at its financial contribution to the project and is hopeful that it will be able to help this initiative to continue."

Blackburn with Darwen Council was also unable to promise it could continue funding the project.