'We Muslims are the new Jews' says MP who has been victim of a hit-and-run and a firebomb attack

Muslims have become the target of prejudice in the way Jews were once persecuted, a minister declared yesterday.

Shahid Malik, an international development minister, said he did not intend any comparison with the Nazi Holocaust.

But he added: 'In the way that it was and still is in some parts, almost legitimate to target Jews, many Muslims would say we feel the exact same way - that somehow there is a message out there that it is OK to target people as long as they are Muslims.'

The complaint by the Dewsbury MP will carry added weight because Mr Malik is regarded as one of the most measured of Muslim leaders, regularly attacking Islamist extremism and suggesting that those who want to live under sharia law could emigrate to do it.

But he added that many feel it legitimate to pick on Muslims 'and you don't have to worry about the facts... people will turn a blind eye.'

The Burnley-born MP, interviewed for Channel 4's Dispatches programme by Mail writer Peter Oborne, told how his car has been firebombed in a petrol station and he receives regular hate mail.

He said: 'I have been the victim of Islamophobia and hatred on many occasions. My family car from years ago was firebombed. Somebody did a hit-and-run while I was walking in a petrol station some years ago.

'They saw me, they went for me, they caught my leg. I, fortunately, was not seriously injured but the CCTV wasn't working and so we were not able to apprehend individuals.'

Exaggerated stories about high-handed behaviour by Muslims are having a damaging effect and hampering the fight against extremism, added 40-year-old Mr Malik.

He cited a newspaper account which said a hospital had been told to turn beds with Muslim patients towards Mecca five times a day and dying Muslims might be asked if they wished to face Mecca.

'That makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country and, at a time when we want to engage with Muslims, actually the opposite happens,' he added.

'They start to become much more insular than we need them to be. It is having a really negative impact on communication, on the whole agenda to tackle extremism.'

Mr Malik said that 'vile' people such as July 7 bomber Muhammad Siddique Khan were abhorrent to all Muslims. 'But it seems very difficult for some people to desegregate people who are evil, who have no religion.'

The minister's view won support from an opinion poll carried out for the programme.

The survey of 1,006 people by ICM Omnibus found 70 per cent believe there is more prejudice against Muslims since the July 2005 bombings and that 52 per cent think Muslims face unjustified criticism.

Of 500 Muslims polled in a parallel survey, 55 per cent said they play a valuable role in society and 13 per cent thought Islamic and British values are not compatible.

Some 38 per cent thought sharia law could be introduced in some areas, but 46 per cent did not.headerlinks