CLARE SHORT, the former cabinet minister, has provoked outrage by describing the cause behind Osama Bin Laden’s terrorism as “just”.

In an interview with a Dubai newspaper, the MP, who resigned from the cabinet after the Iraq invasion last year, makes a fierce attack on the prime minister.

However, her most contentious remarks were those in support of Bin Laden’s cause.

In the interview with the English-language Gulf News, Short said she had been reading a book by a US intelligence analyst that painted a sympathetic picture of the Al-Qaeda chief.

“The author says Osama Bin Laden considers it a war, a defensive jihad, because the people in the Middle East are being crushed and destroyed and their resources, their oil, misused and they have got to defend their civilisation and their religion,” she said.

“So I think the killing of civilians is always wrong, all the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings said it was wrong, but I think the cause is just.”

Short saw little difference between the actions of British and US troops and terrorists, claiming allied forces had deliberately killed innocent people. “I think all of us should criticise the immoral message of targeting innocent civilians and it’s clear the coalition has done that to innocent civilians in Iraq as well,” she said.

Parts of the interview, in which Short compares Iraqi insurgents to French resistance fighters in the second world war, appeared last week. However, The Sunday Times has now obtained a copy of the full interview.

Short makes a strident attack on Tony Blair. “The mood of the cabinet in the build-up to the Iraq war was very worried. People kept saying we must go through the UN and Blair kept saying, yes of course, yes. He gave us a whole series of half-truths and deceptions . . . He gave his word to support (George) Bush and at the same time he misled his party, his cabinet, parliament and country into thinking that he wanted to avoid war.”

Her comments have been denounced by the Tories, who accused her of encouraging more terrorist attacks.

Short was unavailable for comment yesterday.

• Britain’s Muslim community is bracing itself for a growing backlash from right-wing extremists after the murder of Ken Bigley, writes Abul Taher.

  Despite its efforts to save Bigley’s life by sending representatives to Baghdad, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the country’s biggest Islamic organisation, has received hundreds of abusive e-mails. In Birmingham, police have been investigating several bomb threats to the city’s central mosque.

  Iqbal Sacranie, the council’s general secretary, and other senior officials have received death threats. An MCB spokesman said: “Some were from individuals who have cryptic e-mail addresses, and you can tell that others are orchestrated by organisations because all use similar phrases and words.”

  Despite such threats, Muslim leaders in Liverpool feel the crisis has strengthened links between the mainstream Islamic and Christian communities. Prayers were said yesterday for Bigley and his family at the city’s two mosques.

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