MOSQUES in Preston have received shocking hate mail in the wake of the terrorist attacks on America.

Following the attacks last month, letters describing Muslims as "Islamic Scum" were sent to mosques throughout the county -- including Preston.

Police Sergeant Steve Little, of the Community Safety department, said: "I can confirm a number of mosques in Preston have received offensive letters.

"An investigation is now under way to find the sender of these letters, which were posted from the south of the country."

And Abdul Hamid Qureshi, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, hit out at the hate campaign.

He said: "Many of the mosques in Lancashire have been sent hate mail. It is very upsetting and creating a lot of anxiety. It is quite disturbing and for the common people it is seriously worrying. But I don't want to blow it out of proportion. I don't think it is the right approach to be overly worried."

Mr Qureshi indicated part of the blame for the attacks is because of the way the terrorists have been shown in the media.

He said: "The way the media projects this is bad. The terrorists are always called Islamic and Muslim terrorists. This seems to signify that we are all terrorists.

"But we are establishing good links with the police in case of any attacks, making sure that mosques know who to call straight away. But these are precautionary measures and we hope that there are no bad incidents."

He added: "We are praying for this."

Sergeant Little added: "The community safety department monitors all racist incidents, and we also maintain links in the town, including with religious leaders. We have good informal links with all sections of the community.

"We suspect that a lot more mosques may have received letters than we know about, but I am not in a position to name any of them."