The Europe minister has called on the UK's Muslim community to choose between the "British way" of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism.

Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane was speaking to Muslim leaders on Friday following the bomb attacks on the British consulate and HSBC bank in Istanbul.

"It is time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: it is the British way - based on political dialogue and non-violent protests - or it is the way of the terrorists against which the whole democratic world is now uniting,'' he said.

"I hope we will see clearer, stronger language that there is no future for any Muslim cause anywhere in the world that validates, or implicitly supports, the use of political violence in any way.

"Democracy has no place for terrorism and - like Nazism and other forms of tyranny - it must be defeated by the common will and determination of all who live under rule of law and in democratic freedom."

But the remarks provoked anger from some quarters for being insensitive and inaccurate.

Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We do not need lectures from a representative of a government that has conducted an unlawful war against Iraq.

"The Muslim community has consistently condemned terrorism and we condemn this latest attack on the British consulate and HSBC in Turkey," he added.

"Our sympathies go out to the relatives of the Turkish and British families. The attacks only emphasise that the disastrous war in Iraq has not reduced the risk of terrorism, as our own governments had us believe beforehand, but has exacerbated it.

"If Mr MacShane is serious about wanting to reduce the war on terrorism, he and his government should look again at reducing the causes of terrorism."

And Anas Altikriti, director of communications for the Muslim Association of Britain, said it was "no way" to address the 2.5 million law-abiding Muslims in this country.

"It is an outrage and extremely disgraceful," he said. "I am disappointed with the Foreign Office when it should be bringing Muslims together to counter this disease that we are all fighting.

"What these comments do is divide and antagonise a community.

"It was our speaker who at the anti-war demonstration in London yesterday called for a one-minute silence with regards to the victims in Turkey.

"When we call for certain policies not to be pursued, as they will bring about more bloodshed, no one hears us but when those attacks then happen we are told we are not condemning them loud enough. It is utterly disgraceful."