War widows and MPs reacted angrily last night after a Muslim leader warned Britain was becoming like Nazi Germany.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said perceptions of Muslims were so negative there was a danger that people’s minds would be “poisoned as they were in the Thirties”.
His comments, made on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, came as a Sunday Express poll showed the Conservatives surging into an eight-point lead over Labour on the back of public concern about immigration.
Dr Bari, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, also called for Britain to adopt Islamic customs like arranged marriage and to ban the drinking of alcohol in public places.
Western values are not compatible with Islam. As a result, many Muslims form ghettos and engage in other forms of non-integration.
Hair-tricker sensitivities that have Muslim extremists respond to real or perceived insults with death threats, violent demonstrations, murder and terrorism, make it difficult or even impossible for non-Muslims to believe the claim that Islam is a ‘religion of peace.’ Therefore a high birthrate among Muslims, combined with high (legal and illegal) immigration figures, have Europeans and others worried about the Muslims in their midst.
His comments sparked an angry response last night as the nation prepared to remember its war heroes, including the millions killed or wounded fighting Nazi Germany.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army Colonel, said: “I find it pretty distasteful that the Muslim Council of Britain is comparing the society for which I fought, and for which my father and grandfather fought, with a system I find abhorrent.
“On Sunday morning I will be standing at the war memorial in Newark with a friend, who happens to be Muslim, to lay wreaths to commemorate all the servicemen who fell, including the tens of thousands who died in the two world wars overthrowing tyranny.”
Fellow Tory MP David Davies described Dr Bari’s comments as “extraordinary”.
He said: “If there is a backlash in this country, it will come because of comments like this.
“Britain led the world against Nazi Germany. It is extraordinary that this man should be given a platform for his views and that the Government is affording him respect.
“The message has to go out that no one invited Muslims into this country — they chose to come here for a better way of life. Anyone who comes here has to learn our language and respect our way of life and traditions.
“There are far too many people who seem to think they do not have to obey our rules but demand that we change our way of life to suit them. It has got to stop.”
War widows gathering for the national remembrance service at the Cenotaph in London also voiced anger.
Kathleen Woodside, 87, from Liverpool, who helped to found the War Widows Association of Great Britain after her husband Charles was killed on the last day of the war in Italy on March 1, 1945, said: “I am against this kind of talk.
“It is as if the Muslims want to take us over. The timing could not be more inappropriate.”
Fellow war widow Betty Hall, 83, from Truro, whose husband Bernard served with the RAF, said: “It is a great pity that they have to bring up a subject like that when we are here to remember our loved ones, not to talk about religion.”
The Muslim Council of Britain has long been a source of controversy. It says it represents mainstream Muslims and has long had the ear of Government, despite a row about its decision to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day.
But a Tory report this year accused it of promoting separation and ignoring the views of the people it claimed to represent.