Islamic groups in the Netherlands have reacted angrily to a suggestion that only Dutch should be spoken in mosques.

The proposal - by a political colleague of the murdered anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn - came at the opening of a controversial new citizenship course for immigrant clerics.

We are born here, we speak Dutch: why do people not trust us?

A spokesman for a Dutch immigrants' group

The BBC's religious affairs reporter, Mark Duff, says the issue raises questions about how different faiths and values can coexist in today's culturally and racially mixed Europe.

The idea that only Dutch should be spoken in the Netherlands' approximately 450 mosques came in an off-the-cuff remark from the country's immigration minister, Hilbrand Nawijn.

Mr Nawijn told journalists that Muslim clerics had a duty to convince their fellow believers that they should be loyal to the values and norms of Dutch society.

He said the new citizenship course was needed to improve the integration of immigrants - and that he would be looking at how best to promote the speaking of Dutch in places of worship.

New law

Mr Nawijn also said he planned to propose a new law that any religious leader who failed the course would be denied a visa.

A spokeswoman for Mr Nawijn said his comments reflected his deepest wishes - but stressed that he had not spelt out whether ritual prayers as well as sermons should be in Dutch.

The new course - which is mandatory for all newly-arrived foreign clerics - includes lessons in Dutch society and language.

Among the issues it will address are freedom of speech and religion, euthanasia and non-discrimination.

European debate

Most sensitive of all is likely to be the question of sexuality - especially the place of women and homosexuals in society.

Mr Nawijn's mentor, the murdered - and gay - Pim Fortuyn, incensed many of the country's 800,000 Muslims by dismissing Islam's view on gays and women.

A spokesman for one immigrants' group said young Muslims in the Netherlands today felt victims of a new anti-Islamic political culture.

"We are born here, we speak Dutch: why do people not trust us?" he asked.

The debate has resonance across Europe, not least in Britain, where the minister responsible for immigration, Home Secretary David Blunkett, is on record as saying that immigrants need to learn how best to accommodate their own culture to life in Britain today.