By Tom Moseley

THE Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq has claimed mosques in Blackburn are more extreme than in his home country, according to an MP.
The shock comments were allegedly made by Dr Barham Salih, who visited the town as a guest of Jack Straw in 2005.
He is reported to have told a Conservative MP: "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn.

"What I saw...would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal."

The comments have angered mosque leaders in the town, who have branded them "a load of rubbish".
The Lancashire Telegraph has sent a fax to Dr Salih via the Iraqi Embassy in London asking him to explain his views.
Shadow culture minister Tobias Ellwood said Dr Salih was speaking to him at a dinner party in Baghdad in November.
Mr Ellwood made the claims during a Westminster debate about terrorism.
Speaking after the debate, Mr Ellwood said: "I know Jack Straw well, but my eyebrows raise when you have a very senior Iraqi leader make comments like that.

"I do not believe these comments can be dismissed out of hand.

"I was absolutely shocked.

"He went inside the mosques, and said literature he saw would be illegal.

"He was quite clear.

"The comments are only directed at a very small proportion of mosques in the UK - the vast majority of Muslims wouldn't want to be labelled."
Salim Mulla, of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, reacted furiously to the comments.
He said Dr Salih spoke positively about what he had seen when they spoke during his visit.
Mr Mulla said: "We are going out of our way to bring the community together.

"Nobody is working harder than us at breaking down barriers.

"For Dr Salih to make these sort of comments is not very helpful at all.

"I don't know where he's coming from.

"He was very co-operative when he visited, and took lots of photographs.

"How many incidents have we had in Blackburn?

"He is talking a load of rubbish."
Dr Salih, a Sunni Muslim, was elected in January 2005 to Iraq's first democratically-held elections in 50 years.
During his visit to Blackburn, in the run up to the 2005 general election, he told an audience at Audley Community Centre not to vote against Mr Straw, then foreign secretary, because of the war in Iraq.
Coun Mulla said he could not remember which mosques Dr Salih had visited.
Mr Straw could not be contacted for comment.

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

Living in this kneck of the woods. Its common knowledge how militant these parasites are becoming. Ask any REAL ENGLISHMAN and you'll get the same response. But its not PC to say these things is it?....... if you're White!

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

It seems we have lost our understanding of the true meaning of "tolerence" in today's society.I hope this will serve as a wake up call to some of the more naive leaders in Britain.

Quite the contrary, English culture is more tolerant than any other culture in the world. Thats why we are allowing these people to walk all over us unimpeded....Quite sickening to watch your own country fall into the mire slowly without an utterance. Because that wouldn't be fair play would it!

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

My point was that we have taken the word "tolerance" and given it a completely new meaning. Tolerance sixty years ago meant something quite different.

I only have to look into the dictionary to define "Tolerance" and I think you'll find its had quite a constant definition over the years. We're actually more tolerant now than we have ever been in our history.

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

I would disagree. With the rise of the pluralism and universalism into modern thought I believe we have lost sight of what tolerance truly meant.

I think you've lost sight of reality. My country was inherantly rascist as was the USA 60 years ago. Now the majority of people don't have opinions really because they are "THE HAVES" and want for nothing and having strong opinions is too much effort.

I'd say people are less patient due to the rat race on their doorstep which they have to confront every day to get by!

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

I quite agree with that segment, seems to be the overall tune of society. Extreme PC hasn't helped much either...

I believe most of the first world countries and their populations have.

There are times when you need to stray from reality though - for society to step ahead... If everyone let reality/realism and it's figures define everything... there wouldn't be progression or creativity. What is bad is when you don't have the balance.

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-Fireball
Army Wife and mother of 3