Minister says British Muslims alienated

London: Muslims in Britain feel like aliens in their own society and say they are targeted like "the Jews of Europe", the country's first Muslim government minister said.

International Development Minister Shahid Malik painted a bleak picture of the integration of Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, three years after British Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system.

The suicide attacks triggered a debate on whether Britain's policy of avoiding imposing a single British identity, and instead promoting a multicultural society, had led to segregation of ethnic minorities.

Malik, who has been the target of race attacks including a firebombing of his family car, said some media coverage "makes Muslims feel like aliens in their own country".

Sharia implementation

"If you ask Muslims today what do they feel like, they feel like the Jews of Europe," he told a documentary to be shown on Channel 4 television, marking the third anniversary of the attacks on July 7, 2005. "I don't mean to equate that with the Holocaust but in the way that it was legitimate almost - still is in some parts - to target Jews. Many Muslims would say that we feel the exact same way."

Meanwhile, leading Muslim jurists have welcome comments by Britain's chief justice supporting a role for Sharia law in resolving disputes.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, said in a speech on Thursday there was no question of Islamic law replacing English law, but "there is no reason why Sharia principles, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation."

Shaykh Faiz Siddiqi, a barrister and chairman of the governing council of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, said yesterday that critics of any use of Islamic law failed to recognise that both parties had to agree to dispute resolution.