Britain's most prominent Muslim leader has demanded a crackdown on "rogue" Islamic preachers, blaming them for brainwashing young men with sermons promoting holy war against the West.
Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, was backed by the families of some of those arrested in Tuesday's anti-terrorism raids in south-east England.
Police continued to question eight men about the seizure in west London of more than half a tonne of fertiliser thought to be part of a plot to explode a car or truck bomb.
Mr Sacranie said he had been urging the Government for some time to introduce an offence of incitement to religious hatred which could be used against fundamentalists who operated on the fringes of a few mosques.
"These elements are preaching a message of hatred and violence which is against the Koran," he said. "They have nothing to do with Islam. There are more than a thousand mosques in Britain. We are not aware of this sort of activity in more than one or two."
Mr Sacranie made his appeal for tougher legislation after taking the unprecedented step of writing to every mosque in the country urging them to help in the fight against terrorism.