Nigel Farage: 'Some Muslims want to kill us'

The Ukip leader has angered the Muslim community with his latest remarks about Islamic extremists

Nigel Farage has sparked an angry reaction from Britain's Muslim community today by suggesting the rising levels of public concern over immigration are partly to do with a “fifth column” of Muslims who want to form a “fifth column” and “kill us”.

The Muslim Council of Britain hit back on Twitter, pointing to their recent analysis of the 2011 census that found 73 per cent of Muslims identify themselves as British. Only six per cent of the whole British Muslim population were found to be struggling with speaking English.

Mr Farage, speaking during an interview with former equality and human rights commissioner Trevor Phillips for Channel 4, said: “I think perhaps one of the reasons the polls show an increasing level of concern is because people do see a fifth column living within our country, who hate us and want to kill us.”

“So don’t be surprised if there isn’t a slight increase in people’s worries and concerns. You know, when you’ve got British, when you’ve got people, born and bred in Cardiff, with British passports, going out to fight for Isis, don’t be surprised if there isn’t an uptick in concern. There has been an uptick in concern, but does it make us a prejudiced people? No.”

In contrast, he said, previous waves of immigration by Huguenots, Jews and Ugandan Asians became integrated in society while often maintaining private observance of their faiths and traditions.

“There is an especial problem with some of the people who’ve come here and who are of the Muslim religion who don’t want to become part of our culture. So there is no previous experience, in our history, of a migrant group that comes to Britain, that fundamentally wants to change who we are and what we are. That is, I think, above everything else, what people are really concerned about.”