Paul Bird, 42, of Salisbury, became Muslim two years ago. He enjoys talking to other about his ‘new’ faith because it has become a lifestyle and is not “only a religion”. Mr Bird thinks Islam is now everywhere in the UK: “There are several ways in which Britain is sort of becoming Islamic anyway.

“We can see government policies for example, financing of houses on a sort of shared ownership basis rather than mortgages, those come from Islamic principles.”

Mr Bird is divorced and has a five-year-old daughter who he looks after in a regular basis. “Islam is a good way to live one’s life and to raise one’s children, therefore is something I’d like to do as a parent, I can pass that onto my daughter and she too would find that is the right way for her to live her life.”

Mr Bird’s ex-wife is not happy with the idea of raising her child as a Muslim and

therefore she takes her to the Church as much as she can. Mr Bird thinks this situation won’t reach the point where it would be a conflict: “If she sees our daughter happy and well adjusted that is really the important.”

Mr Bird converted to Islam after his divorce but insists that one of the reasons to become a Muslim were his dissatisfaction with the Christian faith.

Nevertheless Mr Bird admits that having been raised in a Christian environment and not knowing many Muslims: “I didn’t have the opportunity to see all the bad things Muslims do.”

“It’s true, if I was raised in a Islamic country then I may well have found myself going down a different path because of seeing the way that people actually live their lives”, he said.