Honour killings - the supposedly "justifiable" murder of someone for bringing shame on a family or individual - must be talked about openly, Bradford community leaders say.

A survey this week claimed one in ten young British Asians believe such killings can be justified.

Whether the poll is unrepresentative, as has been suggested, or whether the killings - often of women who refuse to participate in forced marriages - are acts of male control, as one MP claims, the general opinion is that the situation cannot be ignored.

A tenth of the Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims surveyed said they would condone the murder of someone who disrespected their family's honour, according to the BBC's Asian Network, which polled 500 16 to 34-year-olds across the UK.

Keighley MP Ann Cryer said: "This has absolutely nothing to do with honour or the shame of a family, it's all about men wanting complete control over women and dictating who they should marry."

Mrs Cryer, who has spoken out about the issue in the past, said the name honour killing' should be replaced with a title more representative of the action.

She said she had long been calling for a law against forced marriages, a move which was rejected by Government ministers in June.

Mrs Cryer said to start making progress against the problem, religious and community leaders needed to pull together and compile a database of youngsters wanting to marry from the same community to help develop a generation base with British values, rather than bringing in people from Pakistan.

"Until they get their heads round how they can organise marriages within the community, we are going to keep on having these problems," she said.

But Khadim Hussain, the president of the Bradford Council of Mosques, said he believed the research was not thorough or accurate.

"I think one in ten is a very, very high number," he said.

"I have not met one single person in my life who would say honour killing is something that is good.

"They have asked 500 people, but there are about two million Muslims living in England."

Mr Hussain said he did not believe most Muslims in Bradford would condone honour killings.

And he said forced marriages were against Islam.

"Forced marriages are not acceptable, and arranged marriages are the most successful marriages in the Asian community," he said.

Bary Malik, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association in Bradford, said he believed the results were not truly representative, but said it was a problem which needed to be discussed.

"I'm shocked because those youngsters were born in Britain and live in this civilised society but still hold these backward views," he said.

"I think it's not acceptable in any society, and those who do it cannot use the name of religion because no religion would allow a person to take the life of another."

Councillor Naveeda Iqram (Lab, Little Horton) said the figures were not representative of the views of many Muslims in Bradford.

She said in Pakistan the law was very strict with regard to honour killings.

She also said she hoped forced marriages - as opposed to arranged marriages, which often just involved an introduction - would be made illegal.

"They are the root of the problem, starting the issue that honour killings and girls running away originate from," she said.

Councillor Shamim Aktar said: "The research is representative of a very small percentage of the Muslim population. I'm not aware of any honour killings in Keighley, furthermore they have no religious basis. The Quran teaches individuals to be tolerant and understanding, and the majority of Muslims would not condone that kind of thing."

The results were released following the imprisonment of two men for the murder of 25-year-old Samaira Nazir in London. The Old Bailey heard how she was killed by her brother and cousin because she fell in love with a man her family did not think was good enough.

e-mail: rebecca.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk