A Muslim cleric who has worked towards opening sharia law courts in the UK has been questioned over historic rape claims.

Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, 51, voluntarily spoke to officers looking into claims two Dutch women were sexually abused when they were children in the 1990s.

The women went to West Midlands Police over allegations they were attacked while staying with the sheikh's religious community in the UK, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi has spoken to police investigating alleged sex abuse in the 1990s

Mr Siddiqi told the paper the claims were 'unfounded' and were part of a campaign to discredit his family.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: 'A 51-year-old man from Nuneaton has been voluntary interviewed in relation to allegations of historical rape cases. Enquiries remain on-going.'

Lawyer Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi is principal of a religious college outside Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

He was a leading figure in protests against Charlie Hebdo magazine after 11 of their journalists were massacred by Muslim extremists

He helped set up Muslim Arbitration Tribunal panels around the UK in 2007, described in 2008 as Britain's first legally binding sharia courts.

Speaking about the courts at the time, he said: 'This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.'

The courts were criticised at the time, with then shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'These tribunals have no place in passing binding decisions in divorce or criminal justice hearings.'

After Theresa May announced an independent review into Sharia Courts in Britain, Mr Siddiqi hit back.

He said: 'What about ecclesiastical courts [and the] hundreds of other tribunals out there – professional, industrial, all sorts. Are they a threat to the British way of life? Have they become a parallel system? No. So why is it just Muslims? It is Islamophobia. It is exactly the same intolerance that Isis and al-Qaeda and these guys preach.'

His father, renowned Sufi Muslim scholar Hazrat Mujadid Abdul Wahab Siddiqi, founded Hijaz Manor where the preacher lives today.