LONDON (RNS) Muslims in England are demanding that the British army apologize for using replicas of mosques for target practice on a firing range.

The Bradford Council for Mosques, whose area is heavily populated by Muslims, claims the Ministry of Defense has set up seven phony mosques, complete with green-domed roofs, to shoot at on its firing ground in North Yorkshire.

The Muslim group wants the army to dismantle the offensive targets and to apologize for using them.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defense did not apologize, but insisted that it had “no intention” of causing offense and that the targets were part of “providing the best training facilities” for British armed forces now operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Saleem Khan, chief executive of the Bradford mosque group, said “the shape of the structures, the color of the dome — the green dome — symbolizes an Islamic place of worship.”

“Anyone looking at it will think about mosques, and think about them negatively,” Khan said.

The defense ministry insisted that the firing range “facilities” had been upgraded in response to “operational feedback from Afghanistan, as it is crucial that our armed forces train at ranges that replicate the environment they will be deployed to.”

“We have no intention of offending religious sensibilities,” the statement said.