They said that given the choice they would prefer to be known as “Scottish Asians” rather than “Asian-British” as suggested in an interview in The Times by Hazel Blears, a Home Office Minister.

They also pointed out that recent research conducted by Glasgow University found that many Asians north of the border considered themselves to be more Scottish than Scots themselves.

Isama Saeed Bhutta, the Scottish spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Great Britain, said that Ms Blears’s idea was not very constructive.

“What we already know from research into this is that Asians in Scotland are more likely to call themselves Scots than the Scots themselves,” he said. “I think that is because they come from parts of the world such as Kashmir where there is or has been a strong identification with nationalist movements. In any case they identify themselves first and foremost in terms of their religion. So they are Muslims, for example, before they are Asian.

“I just do not see what use this suggestion would be. The term ‘British’ for many people who come to this country has too many connotations with colonialism and imperialism, while the terms ‘Scottish’ does not.”

Stuart Hosie, the Scottish National Party MP for Dundee East, said that the Government was in danger of missing the point. “We should be tackling terrorism because that is the top priority. In terms of long-term race relations, it is not for a Government to define people. It is for the people themselves to do that,” he said.

He pointed out that while a group called Scots Asians for Independence existed within the SNP, they had chosen to call themselves that.

Mr Hosie also said that it would be ludicrous for the proposed rebranding to be extended to the Scots, the Welsh or the Irish. “Scots have a clear sense of their own identity and they are not going to be told by Government what to call themselves,” he said.

Ethnic communities in Wales also reacted angrily to Ms Blears’s suggestion, saying that they would prefer to be known as “Welsh-Asian” or just “Celtic-Asian” rather than the catch-all of “Asian-British”.

At the University of Wales in Swansea a large scale study also asked Asians whether they felt more Welsh, British, or Asian, and found that many said they felt “Welsh-Asian” best summed them up.

Naz Malik, chief executive of the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association, said that his own children called themselves “Celtic-Asians”.

“Hazel Blears is just catching up on what has been going on around Britain for the last few decades,” Mr Malik said. “There are Asians living in Wales who have always described themselves as Welsh-Asians. What is a constant in our feedback is that they identify themselves as Welsh just as much as British.”

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