Next month, the Government is due to launch its new counter- terrorism strategy, known as Contest 2. Details of the report were leaked last week and, if they are true, there is cause for concern.

Despite what the uninformed believe, the Muslim communities of the UK, including Bristol, have given their full support to combating suspected terrorism in this country. Proof of this was the arrest last year of Andrew Ibrahim, which was sparked by intelligence provided by Muslims in Bristol.

The Government and the security services fully acknowledge that support. It is a relationship built on trust; on the understanding that Government policy is about combating terrorism and not about criminalising Muslim communities.

If the Contest 2 information is to be believed, that relationship is in serious jeopardy.

According to the leaks, the definition of what it means to be "extremist" is being widened to include anyone who believes in a caliphate (a pan-Islamic state of many countries); anyone who promotes Sharia law; anyone who believes in armed resistance, anywhere in the world; anyone who argues that homosexuality is a sin, and anyone who fails to condemn the killing of British soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Why is supporting the idea of a "United States of Islam" deemed to be extreme? The United States of America is based on a similar idea of "one nation under God", and many European countries are in the EU, taking tentative steps towards a super-state.

If I, as a Muslim, were to support an idealistic notion of Muslim nations being united, why would I be considered an extremist?

Major High Street banks offer Islamic finance conforming to Sharia law. Are they extremists too? Some have called for the UK to recognise not just financial Sharia law but also other aspects of Sharia law, like marriage and divorce. The Jewish community already operates similar courts in this country.

If any people, anywhere on this earth, are being oppressed by force, do they not have an obvious right to resist? So why, if I as a Muslim support that right, am I to be deemed extremist?

If some Muslims consider sex before marriage a sin, or homosexuality a sin, as some people of many other faiths do, why, in this particular context of security concerns, is it even an issue?

And why, when a British soldier is killed in Afghanistan or Iraq, or anywhere for that matter, is the Muslim community duty bound to condemn that killing? Lots do anyway, but there are people of many different faiths living in Afghanistan and Iraq, and no other religious community is being obliged to do so in the same way.

If these leaks are true, virtually every Muslim in Britain will at some stage fall under the new definition of "extremist". This will be interpreted as the thin end of the wedge, and the trust that has been built will vanish.

This is not even about freedom of speech anymore; it's about freedom of thought now. The terrorists will have secured another victory without lifting a finger.