EVERYBODY'S doing it - Cabinet members, droves of back-bench MPs, local councillors and rank and file party members are all threatening rebellion against Labour.

Some are even resigning as the government is set to join America in waging war on Iraq without the support of a second UN resolution.

They have every right to do so. For not only does our democracy allow dissent, it cannot condone an "illegal" war to be conducted in its name - above all, when thousands of innocent people may be killed.

That Saddam Hussein is an evil, dangerous tyrant does not make attacking him automatically right even if his downfall may be desirable on those very grounds.

But while everyone opposed to an allegedly illicit war, or, indeed, the horrors of war per se, is free to say so, I wonder whether Asians and Muslims in East Lancashire are wise to do so as openly as some of their representatives have.

First, we had 10 Labour councillors in Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency - all distinguished by being Asian - initially threatening to quit the party if war began without United Nations' backing then expressing their 'considerable dismay' over Mr Straw's stance.

Next, there was the spectacle of pro-US Mr Straw being given what was said to be "one of the biggest ever grillings he has ever had" by Muslim leaders of the Lancashire Council of Mosques in a meeting described as tense and angry.

But though these concerns and protests may be the same and as valid in themselves as those of thousands, if not millions, of others, are these councillors and Muslim leaders not running the risk of appearing not just anti-war, but anti-British in the selective eyes of the bigots in the community?

I fear they may be making life very easy for the likes of the British National Party and other extremists who will calculatingly exploit genuine and valid dissent for war among the ethnic community for their own divisive ends. They'll deliberately boil it down to: "Whose side are you on?"

Speaking up loudly for what they believe is right and just is one thing, but doing so and doing favours for the racist BNP as a result is another. A less-public protest might have been wiser.