One of the Church of England's most senior bishops says he fears Islamic extremists are creating "no-go areas" across Britain for non-Muslims.
The right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Church's only Asian bishop, says people of a different race or faith face being attacked in some Muslim areas.
Bishop speaks of fears
In the Sunday Telegraph he criticises the doctrine of multiculturalism for creating separate communities which fail to integrate in to the mainstream of society.
In a wide-ranging attack, Dr Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, compares intimidation by Muslim radicals to that by far-Right extremists.
He questions whether elements of Sharia law are applicable in the UK and confronts directly the use of loudspeakers on mosques to spread the call to prayer.
The bishop writes: "...there has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism.
"One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into 'no-go' areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability."
Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain accused the bishop of scaremongering.
He said: "Bishop Nazir-Ali appears to be exercised by what he perceives as the decline in the influence of Christianity upon this country.
"But trying to frantically scaremonger about Islam and Muslims seems to us to be a rather unethical way of trying to reverse this."
