London, Sept 20 (IRNA) The Muslim News Tuesday expressed its exasperation at the latest controversial call by Home Secretary John Reid for Muslim parents to spy on the behavior of their sons as suspected terrorists.

"The home secretary is generating a new climate of fear against Muslims, by not only suggesting they are all potential terrorists, but appears to be also trying to divide Muslims families," editor of the monthly paper, Ahmed Versi said.

In an article for the Sun newspaper Tuesday, focusing on the difficulties of bringing up children, Reid said that the 'Muslim community must choose between accepting the propaganda of the terrorists and taking on would-be terrorists at every opportunity'.

"There are times when we must confront them to protect them from harm. So I appeal to you to look for changes in your teenage sons -- odd hours, dropping out of school or college, strange new friends," he said.

But Versi said that the home secretary was proposing another witch-hunt that was becoming 'worse than looking for reds under the bed' during the campaign against communists.

"What is he asking Muslim parents to spy on? To watch when they are ever late and then report suspicions to anti-terrorist police to intervene and have them interrogated for 28 days? It is a pure farce," he said.

The editor said that the government was taking to extreme lengths its campaign against extremism by creating suspicions about all Muslim children.

"Even more dangerous is the impression the home secretary is giving to the rest of society that when parents can't trust their children not to be terrorist, who can," he warned.

In his article, Reid says that 'the dangers of religious extremism and ethnic tensions have replaced the East-West rivalries of the Cold War' but also goes to lengths to insisted that it is 'not a war with Islam'.

"This is a battle against extremism and intolerance. And it is vital that we all work together to defeat those twin evils," he said.

The home secretary said he would start this week to brief the Muslim community, 'to give them the knowledge to defeat these extremists and ask for their help'.

If Muslim parents were worried about changes in their children's behavior, he said that they should 'talk to them before their hatred grows'.

"I don't want a suspicious society when we have done so well in breaking down differences. But the terrorists want to divide us. We must not let them," Reid said.