London, Feb. 5: Police in the United Kingdom have been cautioned not to alienate the country’s Muslims, and if they do have to talk about extremism or terror, they should do so softly.

According to The Sun, Whitehall has circulated a new counter-terror phrasebook in which law enforcement officials have been advised against use of phrases like "jihadi fundamentalist" and "Islamist extremist".

Instead, it suggests that words such as "violent extremism", "criminal murderers" and "thugs" should be used, to avoid any suggestion of an explicit link between Islam and terror.

The document warns that the use of concepts like "the struggle for values" or "a battle of ideas" play into the hands of those who wish to fuel the idea of a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West.

A more productive approach is to stress the idea of shared values, it suggests.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the document had been distributed to "key delivery partners" including chief constables, local authorities and

"The pack is the first of a series of communications intended to brief partners about recent work to develop the 'prevent' strand of the Government's counter-terrorism strategy and help them to identify further contributions they can make to this agenda,” she said.

"The communications guidance is based on in-depth, qualitative research, but is not intended to be prescriptive," she added. (ANI)