Islamist extremists who made headlines with their protest at a parade for returning soldiers were forced off the streets yesterday by an organised demonstration of moderate Muslims.

There was a national outcry when the fundamentalists barracked members of the Royal Anglian Regiment during the troops’ homecoming in Luton in March.

Photographs of the protesters, brandishing banners with slogans such as “Butchers of Basra” and “Cowards, killers, extremists”, were plastered across the front pages of the next day’s national newspapers.

But the demonstration was also met with anger and dismay in the Bedfordshire town’s wider Muslim community.

Moderate followers of Islam said the protest played into the hands of extreme right-wing groups and made their day-to-day lives on the streets of Luton more difficult.

Yesterday, after weeks of rising tensions sparked by the protest, members of the two groups of Muslims clashed.

Qadeer Baksh, chairman of the Islamic Centre in Luton, said a group of around 200 moderate followers descended on Bury Park in the town - where the extremists regularly preach from a stall - to drive the protesters away.

Numbering about six, the extremists were surrounded and themselves barracked with calls of “We don’t want you here”, said Mr Baksh.

Scuffles broke out before police arrived, with the Islamists reportedly shouting back “Shame on you” and “Get back to your synagogue”.

Mr Baksh said: “The Muslims of Luton are totally fed up with these boys. Police were unable to get them off the streets and stop them bringing harm to the Muslim community so we had to.

“A small minority are giving us a bad name and allowing the British National Party to capitalise. They have made the place insecure for our women and children.

“The protest (in March) was the beginning of the problem. We have known about these misfits for years but even that small minority were able to cause us harm then because of the response of the press.”

The extremists reportedly follow the militant group led by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammed.

Mr Baksh said: “There were about 200 of us and just a few of them. We didn’t even let them put their stall up. This is not the end. This is just the beginning.”

Bedfordshire Police would not comment this evening on the incident but it is understood no-one was injured in the clash and no arrests were made.