TOSH from THE TIMES!

In the anguished weeks of debate and foreboding that followed the London bombings last July, dire predictions were made. British Muslims would become the targets of widespread intimidation and hate campaigns as the backlash against extremism took hold. Young British Muslims, it was said, would become further alienated from mainstream society, retreating into a paranoid world of conspiracy theories and religious fanaticism. The community would run into growing hostility and discrimination as perceptions of them as a Fifth Column closed opportunities and people’s minds. They would become isolated and embittered.

The predictions were wrong. British society, and London in particular, rose above crude revenge. Politicians, faith groups and ordinary citizens reached out to the Muslim mainstream in support, sharing their bewilderment and supporting them in the painful selfexamination of why their faith had bred such violence. There were some isolated hate crimes, but no general spiral into communal violence and entrenched hostility. Islam in Britain

Mark Alexander