LONDON, February 22, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – British Defense Secretary John Reid said Wednesday, February 22, Britain was facing a war against what he called "evil Islamist extremists".

"There is a big struggle going on with Islam," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Reid as telling Britain's Daily Express.

"This is a war against evil, make no mistake," he told the British tabloid daily, adding that "modern terrorists" would stop at nothing to destroy every non-Muslim.

"There is a twisted minority who simply want to take the world back to the seventh century, to build an absolute dictatorship where everyone is told exactly what to do and how to think."

"They even have little regard for the lives of Muslims," he said.

Reid's statements contradict those of another UK official though.

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has blamed US President George W. Bush's policies for creating a "clash of civilizations" between Muslims and the West.

An opinion poll February 19, showed that a sweeping majority of 91 percent of British Muslims are "loyal" to Britain and 80 percent still want to live in and accept Western society.

The British official said modern terrorists were seeking to wield dangerous weaponry to kill non-Muslims everywhere.

"Evil is the same, whether it is dressed in Nazi uniforms, the supposed socialists of the Red Brigades and so on or the IRA (Irish Republican Army) in Northern Ireland.

"The terrorists want to commit mass extermination. And if they can get their hands on the material to do it, they will.

"They want to destroy every Jew they can, and every non-Muslim they can," Reid added.

"These evil terrorists are intent on gaining the technology of mass destruction.

"They are an absolute threat to our wellbeing, to our civilization and our society. The only people who stand between them and us are our soldiers."

A leaked secret memo written by Foreign Office Permanent Secretary Michael Jay warned Blair a year ago that the Iraq invasion was fuelling extremism at home and making Britain seen as a crusader state.

But Reid was a staunch supporter to continuing British military presence in the US-occupied Arab country.

"There is no army in the world that has saved more Muslim lives than the British Army in Kosovo, in Afghanistan and in Iraq."

A report by the respected British think-tank Royal Institute of International Affairs said the London terrorist attacks were linked to Prime Minister's Tony Blair's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq.

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