Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

As it happens, I visited the Birmingham mosque shortly after those words were uttered by its chairman. I do not think the chairman's words necessarily represented the views of the worshippers in the mosque, or indeed anyone's views. It should also be said that one of the regrettable aspects of the police operation in Birmingham—I hasten to add that it was none of their fault—was that, as the hon. Gentleman probably remembers, details of it were leaked to the press in a manner that turned the central mosque and the main area in which Muslims were living into a goldfish bowl. I am afraid that it produced the very circumstances in which paranoia can thrive.