FIVE years ago we were warned that we were “sleepwalking to segregation” by advocating multiculturalism.

The respected former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has never veered away from controversy, instead basing his comments on fact.

Trevor Phillips added: “We understood too much and challenged too little.”

At the time, I wrote: “We need to focus on what we share, not what divides us”.

This week, after analyzing a new, comprehensive survey into British Muslim attitudes, Mr Phillips says we are creating a “nation within a nation”.

It reveals that, while the vast majority of British Muslims appreciate the freedoms of British life and trust the authorities, one in six prefers to live separately, while one in five has not entered a non-Muslim home for a year.

Almost a quarter would prefer Islamic, Sharia law to replace UK law, 39 per cent think women should obey their husbands and a third believe in polygamy.

Most think gay marriage is wrong and a fifth think homosexuality should be illegal.

Most worryingly, the survey shows that the most segregated and fundamentalist British Muslims are also the most extreme.

Seven per cent wish for the creation of a caliphate in Britain – the same aim held by ISIS - and four per cent, or 100,000 people, sympathize with suicide bombers.

Bravely, Mr Phillips insists that we hear “what British Muslims themselves think,” even if some of it is unpalatable.

And, having heard, he believes we must act by promoting uncompromising, “muscular“ integration.

Learning English is critical.

So is merging schools with racially differing catchment areas, as is now happening in Oldham, with notable success.

And monitoring social housing could prevent ghettoes forming.

These ideas may seem radical, even intolerant.

But, as Mr Phillips says, we can’t afford to sit this one out.