And there is the heart of his-and our-problem. Shortly before the Boston bombings I attended a conference at a London university on the subject of the "anti-jihadist" movement, including the English Defence League (EDL). One of the presenters talked in particular of the way in which EDL supporters talk of "Muslim rape gangs" — cases like those in Rochdale of Muslim men abusing white non-Muslim girls. The speaker presented it as though it were a smear straight out of a modern-day Der Stürmer.

I was left marvelling that at a London university everything — interpretation, response — other than facts were now open for discussion. For at that moment only half a mile up the road at the Old Bailey, a group of men from Oxfordshire, of Pakistani and North African origin, were standing trial. A few weeks later in mid-May the guilty verdicts in the Operation Bullfinch trial came in. Once again these Muslim men had organised a paedophile abuse-ring of non-Muslim girls. I do not believe they raped those girls because of Islam. But the extremist versions of the religion are a factor in such cases, and judges, in British courts, have said as much and more.

And of course I know — and Standpoint readers know — that such cases involve only a tiny proportion of Muslim men. Distrust, let alone dislike, of Muslims generally should never occur because of this. But there will be people in the country at large who will have less judgment and discernment. They will see not only a terrible thing that has happened, but a desperate unwillingness at the heart of our society to even address this. Will that make things better or worse?

The primary challenge should be obvious. The second is how we deal with a reaction which only has the potential to grow. The answer for much of the media — and most governments — is to say either that things are not happening, or that they do not mean what people think they mean and that in any case we are all bigots for even thinking it. I think there is another answer.