Birmingham’s most senior Muslim leader yesterday compared the political situation in Britain to that of Nazi Germany.

Mohammad Naseem, chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, said that Muslims were being labelled as a threat like the Jews were under Hitler.

Speaking outside the mosque before Friday prayers, Dr Naseem said that Britain was turning into a police state, and accused the Government of “picking on” the Muslim community to pursue a political goal. “The German people were told Jews were a threat. The same thing is happening here,” he said.

Dr Naseem described the terror arrests in the city as an example of the Government justifying its political agenda and anti-terrorism laws. “This is a persecuting course of action that the Government has taken. They have invented this perception of a threat. To justify that, they have to maintain incidents to prove something is going on. There is dismay and people feel they are being persecuted unjustly.

“There is no reason for that. If there is a reason, the process should be open and for everybody to see what is happening.”

He called on police either to charge the nine men being detained or release them. “People are upset,” he went on. “If there is evidence either charge them or release them.

“If they (the police) have been working on this for six months, what is the delay?”

Were it proved that the men were a threat, the community would accept that, he added.

“I do trust the West Midlands Police — but the orders are coming from the political establishment. Blair is under suspicion himself.

“I am asking people to be calm. They (the community) believe they have been wrongly arrested — they can’t see the reason for it. That is why people are upset.”