No-one wants to talk about it, but it is increasingly obvious that in the UK there is a growing undercurrent of distrust and resentment towards Muslims. I think it has been growing since the events of 9/11, and has been fueled by two main factors. Firstly the perception that little is being done by Muslims to tackle the rise of extremism in their communities. Secondly the apparent refusal of many Muslims to integrate in any way into UK society.

Now we can all agree that this is very unfair to vast majority of Muslims who are as peace loving as their non-Muslim neighbours, but just saying that won’t solve the problem. We need to talk about the issues. We need to build trust between different communities.

Northern Irish schools are a wonderful example of how not to handle problems with different communities. In this country most children either attend a state school or a Catholic school, and so grow up surrounded by only children from their own community. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that that reinforces the sense of division between Protestant and Catholic communities, and gives young people a feeling of “us and them.”

I am glad I live in a society where people are free to express themselves in pretty much what ever way they choose and follow the religion of their choice. But Muslims face another choice now: whether to engage with these issues, or blame them all on an intolerant society.