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Terrorism and Community Relations

: I happily endorse the hon. Lady's comments, but I make one qualification, which I will enlarge on later: there is greater sophistication in public opinion than we might allow for. Most people in this country can see that those are the acts of a tiny minority. I endorse the hon. Lady's comments, and I shall add some of my own. Although some members of the community have taken part in terrorism, we should never lose sight of the fact that they are few in number. They are isolated both within their community and in the wider community, and they are unrepresentative. Nevertheless, it remains the case that the security response to terrorism carries with it the possibility of affecting many other members of the Muslim community. We should not lose sight of that fact either. As the right hon. Member for Southampton, Itchen said, it is important to minimise or remove altogether any suggestion that the security response carries with it the implication of bias against Muslims or any possible source of grievance. We have to be careful in the words that we use. Members of this House, community leaders, the media and particularly pressure groups should all take care to give a balanced view—not to be selective, not to hold back from reporting something that is objectively the case and can be backed up, and needs to be put right, but to avoid creating myths that can lead to alienation. The right hon. Gentleman rightly referred to the work done by the Committee in that regard and the evidence that we took. After examining the evidence, we reached the conclusion that"““We do not believe that the Asian community is being unreasonably targeted by the police in their application of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act or of the other legislation enabling stops and searches.””" There is a problem of perception that we need to address, but let us not make that perception worse and embroider myths; let us see what the facts are and address them as they are. We must not do anything to add to any possible sense of grievance that was in the calculation of the terrorists in the first place. Of course, the Government have a role to play in engaging with the Muslim community, and I endorse the remarks made by the right hon. Gentleman. I certainly share his view that it would have been helpful for the Committee to have had sight of, or even known of the existence of, the Cabinet Office study ““Young Muslims and Extremism””. That would have helped us a great deal. I welcome some of the Government's response, but it would have been better for there not to have been a parallel line of thinking at the Home Office; as a parliamentary Committee, we were told one thing, while there was a different line of thinking within the Home Office. Some lessons need to be learned from that. On a more positive note, I look forward to hearing more from the Minister on the Government's engagement with the Muslim community. Such engagement formed a very important part of our conclusions; we wanted the Government to engage with, help and give leadership to that community and help it evolve its own strategies. In paragraph 4 of their response, the Government state:"““As part of the strategy to improve community relations, the Government is committed to ensuring that Muslim and other faith communities are engaged and involved in the formulation of policies that have a direct relevance to them.””" Again, I am covering the same ground as the right hon. Gentleman, who asked how much input there had been from Muslim leaders to the first two clauses of the Terrorism Bill. I look forward to hearing from the Minister on that, and to a reassurance from her that the Muslim community will be closely engaged in the formulation of Government policy; there is a great deal to be gained from that.