I WOULDN'T expect to see a headline which said “community backs brigade's fire extinguishing”.

Similarly, we would not usually see headlines which report that communities welcome the police investigating reports of crime.

However, although it may appear strange, I am pleased that the local Muslim community welcomed the investigation into the possibility of dangerous extremism in the city.

My only question is what on earth made anybody think that they wouldn't.

Shortly after the London tube bombings, some newspapers printed pictures of the victims on their front pages. These made it clear that all members of the community – black, white, Asian, young, old, men and women – had died in that indiscriminate act of selfish and dishonourable murder.

Young Muslims, away from home working at their first jobs in London, were blown apart just as wickedly as any of the other victims.

So, of course, local Muslims, just like Christians, Hindus or non-believers, will condemn all such activity. Like anybody, they will want to support the police in rooting out any people like those who turned a group of ordinary young men into a gang of murderous criminals.

I was intrigued that, shortly after the raids, the police refused to reveal the nationality or religion of the people whose homes had been raided.

I guess that this was well motivated by a desire to protect community cohesion. Actually, I think this refusal was both unnecessary and unhelpful; unnecessary because it's pretty obvious given the addresses raided that, if there was an extremist threat from these places, it would be motivated by a corruption of Islam.

The police censorship of this news is, to my mind, unhelpful because it gives the impression that one community needs the protection of anonymity because some of its members are criminal.

Actually, this is not the case, as the statements from leaders made clear. If there were people living in Cobridge, who are planning extremist violence, (and please note that we do not yet know whether there are), I'm sure they would be outlaws from the community of their birth.

They would receive neither support nor refuge from neighbours who want to go about their ordinary business. They would not be acting in a Muslim way, but a profoundly sinful and dishonourable way. Like Muslim leaders locally, I completely support the police in their hard task of investigating anyone who may appear to be condoning hatred or violence.

However, in my opinion, community cohesion is not served by telling me that I cannot know the type of extremism which may have been plotted.

Truth will never damage our unity. This smacks of political correctness and special treatment. We need a new word perhaps, but we need to be able to say loud and clear that the suspicion at the root of these raids was that Islam was being hijacked to justify fanaticism or hatred.

I say well done to all those leaders who made it clear that murder has no place in Islam. If we are to protect the cohesion of our multicultural areas, we need to put the blame for tensions at the door of those who spread extremist disinformation to promote strife.

In this connection, I say shame on any white extremists who use the actions of a tiny number of fanatics to spread the myth of Muslims as terrorists.

Now, of course, there is also the separate issue of whether or not these raids were justified. I hope that the information received from local people and the other evidence on which the police acted is robust enough to justify their actions. Obviously if people whose homes have been raided believe that this is not the case then they must seek legal advice and, if necessary, take action via the courts.

Terrorism is a real and constant threat to all of us. Just like the Irish Republican bombers of the last century, today's fanatics will clothe their murder in a cloak of religious duty. This does not mean that all who hold to the religion which they hijack are terrorists, any more than all Catholics were once IRA bombers.

We can all protect ourselves and our communities from terror by rejecting extremism and embracing truth.