Millions of Indians and Chinese needed clothes and Asian Muslims were brought in to the factories to make up for the shortage of labour in the textile industry that was concentrated in northern England.

"They didn't seem extremely religious. Many hung out in pubs and went out with local women," recalled Straw.

Today, three generations later, globalisation has taken its toll on England's textile industry, effectively taking the UK cotton boom off the international shelves. Over the course of time, the Asian Muslims became British citizens and a major component in Straw's constituency.

But managing a peaceful coexistence has not been easy for Britain and its Muslim minority. Gone are the laid-back days when homesick Asian men sipped beer at local pubs and flirted with local girls.

Problems with Britain's two million-plus Muslims have been simmering for years. In the summer of 2001, riots swept through northern England, pitting Asian Muslims against whites. British official reports cited "alienation, unemployment and lack of opportunity" as the root cause.

In July 2005, Islamic terrorists set off several bombs in central London, killing more than 50 people and wounded about 700, further straining the already tense race relations in the country.

Controversial issues such as honour killings and forced marriage, as well as the rise and eventual fall of controversial preachers such as Abu Hamza of the infamous Finsbury Park Mosque, blurred the issue even further. Hamza is currently serving time for inciting murder and race hatred.

Coupled with local grievances, many Muslims in the second and third generations began to question their identity and their place in the British society. Although the vast majority have come to terms with being both British and Muslim, it takes only a handful of radicals, as seen in the terrorist attacks in mid-2005, to turn race relations upside down.

Straw himself also caused a stir late last year over an article in which he said a full veil was a "visible statement of separation and of difference" and he asked women visiting his surgery to consider removing it.

According to Straw, showing the mouth and nose could lead to true "face-to-face" conversations with constituents, enabling him to "see what the other person means, and not just hear what they say".

The Islamic Human Rights Commission said Straw's request was "selective discrimination" but the Muslim Council of Britain said it understood Mr Straw's discomfort.

Straw said he was aware that Muslims make up about a quarter of the population of Blackburn, the heart of his constituency, and that he had carefully considered his remarks. But no matter how considerate a public figure may be, it seems that one just can't get away from generating controversy whenever Islam is mentioned.

Like many other Muslim communities elsewhere, sticky domestic debates are being carried amid the heightening of Islamic religiosity among ordinary Muslims.

Straw attributes the rise of Islamic fervour partly to concerted efforts by a number of Middle East countries to incorporate Islamic missionaries as part of their mission abroad.

A survey carried out by Policy Exchange in the UK showed that young British Muslims are much more likely to be attracted to political forms of Islam than their parents. Support for sharia law, Islamic schools and wearing the veil is much stronger among the young.

Many British Muslims complain that local disputes and grievances, such as the sticky issues of assimilation in British society, are being conveniently painted as part of a wider problem generated by political Islam and Muslim extremists.

Others point to the conflict in the Islamic world itself.

High on the list of complaints for young Muslims today are the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many here in the UK, as well as elsewhere, equate the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars on Islam.

Somewhere along the line, radical Islam has overlapped local grievances - and even converged - producing a brutal outcome in London two summers ago.

The bombers were British, born and bred, with jobs and families.

As they took the bait of radical Islamic groups who talked them into taking their own lives and the lives of others, they had long ago goven up on any notion of British citizenship.

Don Pathan

The Nation

LONDON