Kris Hopkins: Britain needs strong laws to fight terror, but we must see the good in all communities

In July 2001, I watched out of the windows of Bradford City Hall as hundreds of mainly young British Muslim men ran through the streets of Bradford while mounted police and young, brave officers fought to try to protect the city. More than 300 police officers were injured, £20m-worth of damage was done to the city and its reputation was severely damaged. That action was undertaken by mindless idiots. It was not about race – it was not a race riot – but about thuggery.

It was interesting – these events were appreciated and understood by the community – that the mugshots of some of the participants were published a few days later and the parents and family members brought those young men down to the police station and started the process of convicting them. That was a harmonious event among all the destruction and upheaval that was running through the community.

Later that year, in September, a meeting of the council’s executive, of which I was a part at the time, was stopped and adjourned while we watched the second plane go into the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11.

Those shocking events made the city reel. Our city was already uneasy with itself and braced itself for further fallout. The tension and suspicion were evident in the pub and the street and when one talked to friends; racists had a field day. What the terrorists wanted had happened and people were frightened.

After the Iraq invasion, seen by many in Bradford as illegal, the dividing line with the Muslim community appeared even greater, so the community, led by the council and other agencies, set about mending bridges. Indeed, bridges were often created for the first time.

For five years, there were school exchanges, people were brought together and cross-community sports were promoted. Areas were created where people could talk openly, speak honestly and speak their mind about issues, challenging each other. We were not naive about where we got to in that process, but it was important in building relationships.

The day after it was announced that London had won the Olympic Games, four men, one originally from Bradford, blew themselves up and murdered many innocent people. That evening, all the main agencies met at the university, which then and since has played a huge role in promoting cohesion in the district. They were brought together to talk, to try and reassure each other and to ensure that we resolved that individual psychopaths would not damage our city further. Our resolve to work together was stronger than that. In the days that followed, time and time again Muslim people came up to me and told me of their disgust at what had happened.

Let me exemplify the feeling of fear. A couple of days after 7/7, an elderly friend of my mother’s was crying as she got off the bus. A young Muslim man – completely innocent – was carrying a rucksack on the bus and she feared that she would die as a consequence. A whole set of tensions, fears, contradictions and events ran through the community as a consequence of those terrorist activities.

We need strong anti-terror laws, but they need to be owned by all the community. Many innocent citizens feel that the existing laws are somebody else’s and we need to ensure that we do not make the same mistakes.

Communities respond, adapt, learn and survive in the face of terrible events and today the Muslim community in my town is not listening to this debate – those people are getting on with their lives, like the rest of the community.

When I talk to people from the Muslim community, I hear that they feel battered. It is always the wider Muslim community – I know that is a generic term to use – that feels pursued.

Good people who have no hatred in their hearts are looked on with suspicion by others and have been subjected to some of the knee-jerk reactions.

I agree that it was difficult to start the “Prevent” agenda with a blank piece of paper and although I was extremely critical of it, I take it in good faith that it had to be started somewhere.

I have seen reports that doctors will be asked to report if they spot somebody who is acting suspiciously. My chief executive was brought to London and was told that the binmen had to look out for bombs and devices. Good-minded, good individuals, if they spot a bomb, a device or something suspicious, do not need the Government to ask them to pick the phone up and tell somebody. They do it because they are good citizens of this country.

In conclusion, any anti-terror law must protect its citizens from ideological psychopaths who threaten to destroy society and the values that define it.

One fundamental problem, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, is that there are differences in certain values to do with such issues as equality, human rights and corruption.

The Government has the difficulty achieving a balance between ensuring safety and not alienating communities from one another. The aim of a coherent society cannot be achieved to the detriment of one part of that society.

People can seek to integrate, respect each other and even to develop shared ownership of important laws such as the one we are talking about today without compromising their principles.

I want the Muslim community to feel safe, to be successful and to play a full part in British society.

Kris Hopkins is the Conservative MP for Keighley and a former leader of Bradford Council. This is an edited version of a speech that he delivered in Parliament this week in response to the Government’s measures on countering extremism.