EVENTS last week in Paris have stunned the world and shocked all of us on so many different levels.

 

The senseless loss of life is heartbreaking.

The apparent ease with which terrorists were able to gun down innocent people going about their everyday lives was terrifying.

And the blatant attack on the freedom of speech that we all take for granted was chilling.

Our hearts go out to everyone affected.

Rightly, there is an understandable - and uplifting - human desire to stand shoulder to shoulder with France and make it clear that they do not face the battle against such atrocities alone.

The sight of more than a million people marching through the streets of Paris on Sunday was a wonderful affirmation of human solidarity in the face of such brutal and inhumane terror.

That display of unity is important because at times like these, it is vital that we do stand together and that we don't let the terrorists either divide us or make us turn our backs on the very freedoms that we should be protecting and that their attacks are designed to undermine.

Governments in countries across the world have a duty to do everything possible to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks.

But if that starts to involve limiting our own hard won freedoms and civil liberties, then the danger is that the terrorists get what they want - which is to destroy our way of life.

We must always guard against that.

We must also make sure that we blame no one for these attacks except the terrorists who carried them out and those who support them.

It always distresses me to hear it suggested that Muslims in general have something to apologise for when attacks like this happen.

They absolutely do not.

These attacks pervert and distort the teaching of Islam and, as a result, they are as much an attack on that peaceful religion as they are on the rest of us.

Let it not be forgotten that one of the Paris victims was a Muslim police officer - he died in service, seeking to protect and defend the right of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists to satirise his religion.

It is that police officer who we should consider to be representative of the Islamic faith - not the terrorists who killed him.

I am privileged to count many Muslims among my friends - some are amongst my closest friends.

I see at close quarters what a deep impact these dreadful attacks have on the Muslim community.

They feel the same fear as the rest of us - but they also live with the knowledge that some people 'blame' them.

That is unacceptable.

So at this time, as we stand united with the people of France, let us also put an arm around our Muslim friends and neighbours and make a point of celebrating our wonderful, diverse, multi-cultural country.

And, as we do so, we can be safe in the knowledge that such love, unity and solidarity is the antithesis of everything the terrorists stand for and they will hate it.

Which is a good thought to end on.