Representatives of the Oxford Mail and the city's Muslim community have met to discuss claims that the relationship between the two had broken down.

The Mail's coverage of a number of stories came in for strong criticism, amid claims that it has stigmatised the community and that Muslims were singled out in reports of a recent police raid in east Oxford.

Several senior Muslim figures in the city backed the claim, made by the newly formed Oxford Muslim Youth Forum.

One of their main grievances was that in recent police raids as part of Operation Iowa, Thames Valley Police had made clear they were raiding Muslim homes by publicising the fact that they had taken certain measures when entering houses so as not to offend the religion of suspects and their families. The Oxford Mail and other news media reported this, both locally and nationally, and the police were also criticised at a council meeting last week for releasing the information.

Mail representatives met the Muslim Youth Forum on Monday and Oxford city councillor Sabir Hussain-Mirza last week to discuss the issues.

Faisal Aziz, founder and spokesman for the Oxford Muslim Youth Forum, said that many young Muslims already felt "criminalised and marginalised" as a result of the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, and that stories concentrating on the religion of arrested suspects made things worse.

He added: "We have absolutely no problem with reporting that raids took place on Oxford's Asian community. People have a right to know what is going on and who is involved.

"But there has never been a precedent where an alleged criminal has had his religious background mentioned in a newspaper. If, for example, a Catholic commits a crime, we would not expect to read that police had arrested 10 Catholics." "Our purpose is to defend the faith we love against Islamophobic stereotypes and also to integrate harmoniously with the whole Oxford community and provide a better under- standing of the Muslim faith, which is a truly peaceful one."

Mr Aziz added: "We are Muslims, we are British and we are from Oxford. We love our country, we love our city and we love our faith. Many people's perception of Muslims is of extremists, when the vast majority are honest and peaceful."

Mr Hussain-Mirza said: "The Asian community as a whole has always had generally good relations with the paper. But I am getting an increasing number of complaints from Muslims about the paper's coverage over the past year or so.

"People are beginning to feel that their local newspaper is against them. I've told them this is not the case, but there are problems here that need to be dealt with"

Supt Paul Sullivan, of Oxford Police, said the force always strove to ensure that the personal requirements of minority groups were provided for when they entered the criminal justice system.

He added: "Information was given to the media on the facilities available to Muslims during Operation Iowa in order to maintain the high level of public confidence in the force, as in the past the police service nationally has been criticised for its treatment of minority groups."