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A police force has deleted social media posts supporting 'Islamophobia Awareness Month' after they said it had "come to their attention" that the logo featuring a one-fingered salute was similar to the one used by ISIS.

Think tank MEND launched its annual Islamophobia Awareness Month at the beginning of November in a bid to combat the “rising tide” of hate crimes against Muslims in Britain.

It quickly gained support from unions and politicians including Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi – with its logo showing a single finger gesture.

Bedfordshire Police announced it was deleting posts supporting the campaign “to avoid offence” after a flood of angry tweets.

(Image: Twitter/Bedfordshire Police)

(Image: Twitter/Bedfordshire Police)

The campaign logo shows a hand with a single index finger raised which is regularly used by Muslims. However, the symbol has been hijacked by terror group ISIS who often are pictured making it before jihadi missions.

The gesture alludes to the Islamic belief of tawhid that there is one God and that he was unique in creating the universe.

It makes up the first half of the shahada – an affirmation of faith recited during daily prayers which experts say has been hijacked by ISIS fighters.

Rita Katz of SITE said: "The gesture has been used by jihadis for years, including high profile ones like Osama bin Laden.

"Within the jihadi context, the raised index finger takes on political meaning as well, widely rejecting any form of government not under Shariah law.

After the similarity was pointed out Bedfordshire Police deleted tweets and Facebook posts supporting Islamophobia Awareness Month as well as a press release lending their support for the initiative.

The force said in a statement: “It has come to our attention the pointing finger logo used to illustrate social media posts around Islamophobia Awareness Month is similar to that used by ISIS.

“The logo was produced by a national charity and was used in good faith.

“As a consequence and to avoid offence, Bedfordshire Police has deleted these posts and will not tolerate Islamophobia or any other form of hatred or discrimination.”

(Image: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett)

The campaign Awareness Month was launched at the beginning of November at the Houses of Parliament with several MPs attending the event.

MEND founder Sufyan Ismail said the aim of Islamophobia Awareness Month was to highlight the scale of hate crimes against Muslims while raising awareness of their positive contributions in British society.

He said: “Islamophobia has become socially acceptable, even mainstream, in our society.

“The Met police have reported a 67 per cent increase in hate crimes, the Prevent programme targets the community, the media is 21 times more likely to say something negative about Muslims than positive, Asian men are 11 times more likely to be racially profiled at airports, and Muslims are paid 13-21 per cent less than Christians.

Speaking at the launch Tory peer Baroness Warsi said Islamophobia is one of the key drivers of radicalisation and the challenge is to “get people who are not Muslim interested”.

She said: “It’s a really sad state of affairs when you have to prove that Islamophobia exists, but we now have the statistics to prove that it does.”