Do ministers have a handle on communities in fear?

One hundred imams wrote to condemn the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. The Muslim Council of Britain was equally expressive.

Many Muslims have joined the hundreds of thousands in paying their respects to the soldier and his family.

So you might expect they would merit some public display of support for what their communities are now going through. They are being blamed for something they have nothing to do with and they too have become the targets for extremists.

One charity reports so far 165-plus incidents of threat, vandalism and hate crimes. At least eight mosques have been attacked.

For they too are suffering and their fears are here and now.

Islamic centre targeted

On Sunday in Grimsby an Islamic centre was set on fire. No serious injuries yet so far as we know. But the problem is getting to know.

Does anyone in authority have any idea what it’s like living in fear in a community under siege, targeted because of ignorance and hate?

I would like to think that ministers, while working out how to purge society of radicalising clerics, spare a thought for those communities too.

Have they asked police and local authorities to be regularly updated on the scale of the backlash?

We’ve tried. We have asked repeatedly for figures from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), who you may have thought could be collating this information from forces.

‘Nothing from MPs’

You would have thought the ministers would be demanding updates while under pressure from MPs.

But no. Nothing from them or their departments.

Responsibility for domestic extremism has transferred to the Metropolitan police – so we asked them.

No luck there either.

Why should those communities think that anybody outside really cares? They need to be reassured, not just acknowledged for their support and condemnation of Drummer Rigby’s murder.