THE former Bishop of Birmingham has likened the pursuit of suspected terrorists as "coming close to a police state".
Archbishop John Sentamu, who fled Uganda in the 1970s, criticised new calls for 90-day detention, likening it with his home country under the tyrannical rule of Idi Amin.
"If you detain people, you must have good enough reason for detaining them and have a chance for there being a successful prosecution," he said.
"(The Home Secretary) has not produced the evidence that shows that in 90 days you're capable of getting somebody prosecuted.
"Why does he want these days, so the police do what? Gather more evidence? To me that becomes, if you're not very careful, very close to a police state in which they pick you up and then they say later on we'll find evidence against you. That's what happened in Uganda with Idi Amin."
The Archbishop also urged people coming to live in the UK to adopt and "cherish" British values.
The second most senior cleric in the Church of England said: "If you are in Britain and you're British, you should really cherish the traditions that are here."
Dr Sentamu, the current Archbishop of York, spoke out as it was revealed Tory leader David Cameron was returning to Birmingham today to speak to leaders of the city's Central Mosque in the wake of a string of terror arrests in the city.
Mr Cameron's visit, his second to Birmingham in eight days, also follows his first major intervention on Islamic extremism.
He urged ministers last week to pay less attention to "loud" Muslim groups who often did not represent the views of their communities.
Mr Cameron said many such groups pursued an agenda of "separation rather than integration", and the Government could not afford to "defer" to their views.
Mr Cameron's visit follows further outspoken comments from Mosque chairman Mohammed Naseem, who likened the plight of Muslims in Britain to that of Jews in Nazi Germany.
