Sometime before the September 11th attack on the twin towers I was warned by a Muslim who I have known for many years and whom I hold in high regard that the preacher at the Finsbury Park Mosque was inciting violence. I listened carefully to what he had to say and passed his concerns on to the Home Office. I was asked by other Muslims in my constituency to close down the Finsbury Park Mosque. I said that I didn't think we should close down Mosques. I was also told that some Muslims were calling for violence but they were "only Wahidis". I assumed this was an internal dispute and thought little more of it. All that was before September 11th. As an opposition Labour MP during the Serbian ethnic cleansing of Bosnia I called for military intervention. Europe wrung its hands but did little. The atrocities at Srebrenica were, in my view, one of the main reasons that recruitment into terror groups escalated so sharply. After all, if Europe was not going to intervene when white European Muslims were being butchered by white European Christians what chance was there for Muslims elsewhere? I don't support that belief but I have little doubt that it was a factor motivating some of these extremists. When the Serbs started on the Kosovo Muslims we did intervene. I was greatly relieved and so were the Muslims - particularly in Kosovo. Tony Blair was declared a hero by Kosovo Muslims. This has been a long and tortuous road for both Muslims and non Muslims. I know that foreign policy is a factor in the discontent and the failure to deal effectively and fairly with the Israel/Palestine question is profoundly important and Tony Blair is now heavily criticised by Muslims. I believe most people in Britain want to avoid stereotyping Muslims as terrorists but I really don't think it helps either Muslims or non Muslims if you say, as you do in your editorial that terrorism has "very little to do with religion". You talk in the same editorial about failed prosecutions leading to scepticism. True but you almost imply that all accusations and attacks are unreal. The failed ricin prosecution you refer to was matched by a successful ricin prosecution in France leading to long prison sentences. The planned attack on the Eiffel Tower, the attack in New York, in India, in Indonesia and a number of other countries, many of them Muslim, cannot be explained by politics alone. Islam has a long and proud history of progress behind it. What is happening now is a struggle for the heart and soul of Islam. None Muslims find it difficult to help. I am convinced the extremists will not win as long as there is an open recognition that there is a religious struggle within Islam as well as political causes for the current wave of terrorism. If you don't recognise the importance of the internal religious struggle it will play into the hands of racists and your other opponents who can easily claim that Muslims only blame the West and believe that everything within Islam is peace and harmony. That is not what the Muslims who came to me about Finsbury Park Mosque said. The majority of British people are tolerant and anxious not to stereotype Muslims. But this large and supportive section of British society needs help from the Muslim community too. Failure to acknowledge a religious aspect to the current wave of terrorist attacks around the world defies common sense. France was not involved in Iraq neither was Indonesia. Many of the attacks have been against Muslim states and accompanied by supportive statements from groups claiming Muslim legitimacy for the attacks. Osama Bin Laden states that his aim is to reclaim the sacred sites in Saudi Arabia. These attacks and planned attacks do have a religious content as well as a political one and both need to be addressed in equal measure. The Muslim News is well placed to lead that debate. Will you rise to the challenge?