Campaigner Fiyaz Mughal was attacked after he asked gay rights champion Peter Tatchell to join[MARK KEHOE]

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For his part, he is irritated the voices of mainstream Muslims like him, or the “silent majority” as he describes them, are too often drowned out by more extreme voices in the media.

It has received more than £200,000 in Government funding and although the way it measures hatred has been questioned, Mr Mughal is viewed in Whitehall as someone “to do business with”.

Mr Mughal, a former Lib Dem adviser to Nick Clegg, modelled the outfit on the CST and it compiles figures on verbal, physical and online abuse against Muslims.

Tell Mama, which stands for Measuring Anti Muslim Attacks, was launched with the backing of Communities Secretary Eric Pickles in 2012.

It is the latest attempt to build anti-extremism platform that combats prejudice within and against all faiths.

The Sunday Express can reveal that Richard Benson, a former chief executive of the Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish organisation that battles anti-Semitism, is to become Tell Mama’s joint chairman.

He expects further hostility next week when he is expected to make another startling announcement.

They say he is being deliberately provocative, while he is also being targeted by far right fascists in the BNP and English Defence League.

Fiyaz Mughal, who runs the Tell Mama reporting hotline, is being warned his group will be shunned by fellow Muslims after he invited gay rights champion Peter Tatchell to become a patron.

We’re clear. If you are homophobic or anti-Semitic, you can’t campaign against anti-Muslim prejudice

He points to comments made last month by Dr Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of the huge Birmingham Central Mosque, who compared homosexuality to being a “compulsive murderer”, gambler or paedophile”.

Dr Naseem said there were gay people in Muslim countries but “they respect the law and control their desire”.

Were “compulsive murderers” to ask for their “freedom of action” they would be told no, he argued.

Mr Mughal was so infuriated by the “disgraceful” remarks he wrote an article on his Tell Mama website in which he said Dr Naseem was “fundamentally wrong”.

He wrote: “Maybe you hadn’t looked around lately, Dr Naseem. No one really cares if people are gay or not. Being gay is not a weakness but calling yourself a mosque leader and having views that are not socially acceptable is a problem.”

Within days, Mr Mughal was the target of a hate campaign.

An anonymous leaflet under the banner “Muslim Community Alert” was circulated to mosques and other Muslim groups.

“Beware of the Tell Mama organisation,” it read.

It said its views on homosexuality had “exposed its reformist agenda” and it had “overstepped its stated remit”.

However, defiant Mr Mughal said that by linking up with senior figures from the Jewish and gay community, a message against all intolerance would be sent out.

He told the Sunday Express: “The leaflets suggest I’m trying to change, that Islam is under threat, and that just plays into a deeply corrosive narrative.

“We’re clear. If you are homophobic or anti-Semitic, you can’t campaign against anti-Muslim prejudice.

“The two things just do not go together. If you’re an intolerant figure against someone else, you can’t then cry wolf when something happens to you.

“We’ll stand against intolerance in all communities.”

Mr Tatchell, who has consistently attacked Islamists’ views on homosexuality, said it was a “big honour” to join Tell Mama.

He said yesterday: “I hope I can build bridges between the Muslim and gay communities.

“I’m probably the first openly gay person appointed to a senior position in a mainstream non-gay Muslim organisation.