London, England - Muslim and civil rights groups say a proposal to close places of worship suspected of inciting extremism is unnecessary and could be divisive.
The civil rights group Liberty warned the proposal was the "worst type of response to terrorism".
Adequate powers already existed, said the Muslim Council of Britain.
The comments follow a warning by the Association of Chief Police Officers that the proposed plan could be seen as an attack on religion.
Under the plans, police could seek a court order for the temporary closure of a place of worship if extremist behaviour or terrorist activity was believed to be taking place.
But Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said police already had the powers to deal with such a scenario.
"In the only known case where premises were abused - in Finsbury Park mosque - the police were able to use existing powers to ensure that normality returned and there is now a new management there," Mr Bunglawala said.
Mosques were not specifically named in the proposal but most people would see the proposal as referring to mosques and trustees of mosques, he added.
Divisive
A consultation period on the plans, first proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair in August, ended three weeks ago.
A spokesman for Liberty said such a move could be divisive.
"It will alienate people without any discernible benefit. These powers are unnecessary as it is already a crime to incite someone to racial hatred or to commit an offence," Liberty's policy director Gareth Crossman said.
The director of Muslim Voice UK, a website polling Muslim's views on issues, said feedback coming in showed people were very concerned about the implications of the government's proposal.
Shaista Gohir said the site was currently running a poll on reactions to the government's new anti-terror proposals and it was already clear that the lack of definition for "extremism" was a major worry.
"For example because "extremism" isn't defined some people are worried they might go to the mosque and talk about groups which favour Sharia law, which is part of Islam, although it's not practised here, and that could be deemed as extremism," Ms Gohir said.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Beckley, who is responsible for community relations at the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the plan could be seen as specifically targeting Islam.
"Being radical, being extreme in itself is not an offence," he said.
Techniques
He said that if police had their suspicions about a particular mosque they would want to identify those responsible rather than close it down.
Mr Beckley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We would want to find out what was happening.
"We would use different techniques to do that, policing techniques that are pretty tried and tested, because what we want to do is identify those who might be perpetrating terrorism and prevent them."