Farooq Siddique: A Muslim in Bristol

Last Thursday, the Evening Post reported the visit to Bristol of Shahid Malik, minister for communities and local government, who praised Bristol's Muslim community for informing the police about would-be suicide bomber Andrew Ibrahim.

Mr Malik said: "The fact that it was the Muslim community that came forward with information is something that Muslims globally can take great heart from.

"What happened here shows clearly that Muslims are the same as everybody else, they respect the same laws and they are valued members of the community."

The people that reported Ibrahim to the security services have shunned any media attention or publicity about their role in potentially saving many lives, saying only that they were only doing what anyone else would have done, and that it was simply their Islamic duty.

The Minister's words will nevertheless be reassuring to many within the Muslim communities.

Too often now, the Muslim communities are viewed with suspicion, fear, and hate.

"Islamophobia" is a term coined especially to give recognition to this new phenomenon; an irrational fear of Islam and Muslims. But groups like the English Defence League are hell bent on turning an obvious lack of understanding of Islam, an irrational fear, into something far more sinister and devastating: the hatred of Muslims.

I completely understand why genuine ordinary people would suffer from symptoms of Islamophobia.

Before 9/11, the general knowledge of the Muslim communities among wider society was certainly limited. In those, now good old days, the Muslim communities were seen as law-abiding, peaceful and hard-working, they kept themselves to themselves. There were movies, the Arabian Nights, Aladdin and Sinbad. I cheered Sylvester Stallone in Rambo 3, fighting alongside the Afghan "Mujahedeen" as they sought to rid their country of those pesky Russians! I even remember when former US President Ronald Reagan dedicated the launch of the Space Shuttle to the "freedom struggle of the Mujahedeen of Afghanistan". How times change!

After 9/11, virtually overnight, the Muslim communities became viewed as a threat, the state within, the fifth column, terrorist sympathisers and conspiring to take over the world.

In the absence of any knowledge, ignorance prevailed.

Today, many within the Muslim communities are still getting used to the new ground reality. The fall from grace has not been easy. That a mere 19 deluded hijackers could have such a catastrophic impact on world events and on the perception of Muslims all over the world is difficult to fathom. Subsequent actions and counter actions around the world have served to only further add to that sense of misunderstanding, that sense of fear.

If you read some of the feedback I get to my column on this website every week, the scale of misunderstanding becomes clear.

In reply to one of the questions I get almost every week, I say loudly, clearly and honestly: "No! Muslims do not want to take over the country!"

I, like most people in this country, want to live in peace. As a Muslim, I am free to practise my religion in this country without risk of persecution or oppression. It is a freedom that everyone else enjoys in this country, too. It's a part of what makes Britain so great.

I have no doubt that a tiny minority of Muslims around the UK (and the world) are doing and saying terrible things, often against other Muslims. But they do so despite being Muslim, not because they are Muslim.

"Islamophobia" can only be overcome by joint knowledge. In that, every Muslim must now try and play a part. It's time to step forward and be an ambassador for your community.