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Terrorism and Community Relations

The hon. Gentleman is making an important point. However, I would hazard the explanation that the Mayor of London did that because he perceived that the views being expressed by that individual, which I find every bit as abhorrent as does the hon. Member for Walsall, North, were not considered extreme in a large part of the community to which the Mayor wished to appeal, but were perceived to be mainstream. That is a subject that we are sometimes unhappy to talk about openly. I suggest that that is why the Mayor did it. His perception was that cleric was not an extremist, or at least not viewed as one within the community to which he went to preach.