BRADFORD is one of five cities where buses will carry adverts praising Allah during Ramadan as part of a fundraising drive by Britain's biggest Islamic charity.

Islamic Relief hopes the adverts, bearing the slogan Subhan Allah, meaning "glory to God", will help change the "negative climate" around the Muslim community and international aid in the UK.

But the campaign, which will run during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, has drawn criticism from Christian groups who fear their own religion is being increasingly censored while allowances are made for Islam.

Last year Odeon, Cineworld and Vue cinemas refused to show an advert featuring the Lord's Prayer, while a Christian group was also banned from running a bus advert that angered the gay community.

The Islamic Relief adverts will run on 180 buses in London for two weeks from May 23, up to Ramadan's expected start on June 6, before returning in the capital and to 460 more buses in Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester and Bradford at the end of the holy festival.

The charity receives up to half of its income during Ramadan and hopes the campaign - backed by England cricketer Moeen Ali - will draw generous donations and encourage Muslims to carry out humanitarian work.

Imran Madden, the charity's UK director, added: "In a sense this could be called a climate change campaign because we want to change the negative climate around international aid and around the Muslim community in this country.

"International aid has helped halve the number of people living in extreme poverty in the past 15 years, and British Muslims are an incredibly generous community who give over £100 million to international aid charities in Ramadan."

He added: "We have chosen bus advertising because it allows us to put our message across cost-effectively to a wide cross section of people.

"This campaign is about raising awareness as well as raising funds. We hope it will be received very positively because we have a positive message to share."

But Andrea Williams, head of Christian Concern, said that allowing Islamic adverts while banning Christian ones reflected a "disproportionate fear" about the Christian message in the face of worries about critiquing Islam.

She said: "Increasingly what we see is accommodation being made for certain groups and a fear by the elite of consequence if they do not make way for certain groups.

"It (the ruling elite) bends over backwards to ensure that groups like (gay rights charity) Stonewall and Islamic Relief are given space but is very concerned when it comes to Christian advertising or morality, so that is where you find a certain message being censored.

"Our cases at Christian Legal Centre demonstrate how the message of Christianity is censored in the public space as the elite fears that it will offend.

"But when it comes to Islam, there is a big push by the ruling elites to make as much accommodation as possible, and a fear of being seen to critique or criticise the doctrine of Islam."

She added: "If these adverts are running then we should ensure that space is given for Christian adverts to run, but what we are seeing in many situations is the removal of access to public space for Christian groups."