According to Taj Hargey, president of educational Islamic Cemtre in Oxford, "Christianity in Britain is under siege".

Dr Hargey has written to the press about his preoccupation regarding a Devon hospital's decision forbidding 54-year-old nurse Shirley Chaplin wearing a cross.

This prominent Muslim said: "The national religion in Britain has never been opposed and mocked as this time by institutions who must protect it. I am a Muslim, but as a non-Christian I can see clearly the shameful way in which the national faith is being treated.

"To take off the crucifix is mocking our precious right to religious freedom. It means a true and proper attack to our religious freedom of expression," he continued, "that freedom which once represented a milestone of our democracy. I feel that I am not exaggerating when I say that a virulent wave of secularism is engulfing our society and the target of this wave is Christianity."

Dr Hargey wrote after Ms Chaplin lost her battle in the courts because she wore a crucifix. She decided to appeal. In the same hospital, some Muslim doctors are permitted to use the veil.

Similary, a nurse was prohibited from praying for the patients of the ward.