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Terrorism and Community Relations

: That is a good point. There are issues in the Muslim community and it is important to engage with all its strands, help it evolve its own strategies in response to such matters and enable as much impetus as possible to come from within the community, rather than its having something that it might not endorse in every respect dictated to it by the Government. Since the publication of our report and the Government's response, we have seen the tragic events of July, which produced a response from the Government in August in the form of the Prime Minister's 12-point plan. The measures that some of us were debating yesterday formed part of the Government's response, but I should like to ask the Minister about some other elements of the Government's 12-point plan that were not covered by the legislation yesterday—in particular, the Prime Minister's statement of 5 August that the Home Secretary was publishing new grounds for deportation and exclusion. Indeed, that was the point on which the Prime Minister said that the rules of the game were changing. Will the Minister say whether there have been any deportations? I do not believe that there have, but she will correct me if I am wrong. When does she expect deportations to occur as a result of the grounds that the Home Secretary is introducing? The Prime Minister also promised to consult on an extension of existing powers to strip citizenship from those who act in a way that is contrary to the interests of this country. What is happening about that? The Prime Minister mentioned the case of Rashid Ramda, and I share the views of the Home Secretary on that. Imagine the outcry in this country if things were the other way round; imagine if one of those responsible for an attack on the London underground went to France and we could not secure his extradition for various reasons. We should feel no less of a sense of urgency or outrage because the victims of the 1995 bombings were French citizens; the issue needs to be addressed. The Prime Minister promised to consult on setting a maximum time limit for future extradition cases, and we hope that that will prevent a case such as that of Rashid Ramda from occurring again. Will the Minister tell us what is happening? During the inquiry, I was most struck by the evidence of Gerry Gable, the publisher of Searchlight. He was asked about the links between 9/11, the threat of terrorism, community tensions and the rise in anti-Semitic attacks. He said:"““I find this very interesting. If you look at the immediate period after 9/11 . . . there were far fewer incidents involving the Muslim community than any of us expected””." He went on to say that there had, in fact, been a rise in anti-Semitic attacks. Nonetheless, the question of Islamophobia and attacks on the Muslim community is important, and we must be careful to ensure that any such attacks are properly addressed; there are no grounds for complacency. Indeed, one important conclusion in our report is that much more data on attacks should be collected. The Muslim community could draw on the experience of the Jewish community's Community Security Trust and keep a record of attacks, because it is important that we have objective information about them. Given the lack of information, our judgment is inevitably subjective, but I do not feel that there was an upsurge in Islamophobia after 9/11 or more recent attacks in this country. British public opinion is more sophisticated than it is sometimes given credit for, and people can see that these wicked terrorist attacks are carried out by a very small number of people. The overwhelming majority of this country's citizens distinguish between those people and the rest of the Muslim community, and they feel sympathy towards that community because of that small minority's activities.