Predictably some Muslims (and the anti-imperialist left) has cried foul with shrieks of "Islamophobia" in an attempt to deflect criticism away from the real issues about the theology behind the growth of Jihadism amongst many young (and not so young) followers of Islam.
But this is not the only issue where such difficulties arise.
Two stories (both on the front page of today's Times newspaper caught my attention.
The first, the lead story was about the growth of knife crime. The Times reports (no link £):
A reduction in stop-and-search checks on teenagers, championed by Theresa may, is contributing to a dramatic rise in stabbings the countries most senior police officer has said.
These stabbings have risen by a quarter apparently and to be honest hardly a day seems to go by without a report of stabbing somewhere in London let alone elsewhere in the country. There have been 1,697 youths stabbed in the capital between June 2014 and May 2015.
That's a lot of violent crime. And the key word is youths.
Now Stop & Search was because it caused damage to community relations, by which they really mean the black community. It has to be pointed out that a disproportionate number of victims are black youths.
A lot of the prominent campaigners against knife crime are black parents. So we have a problem that does need to be addressed.
No one wants to target young black men, but gang culture is out of control in the black community and how society deals it will be no easy task.
But there are those who inevitably shout "race", and whilst no one says all knife crime is from the one community, there is a culture that does need tackling.
It's young black men who are statistically at most risk.
It needs dealing with.
And without "damaging community relations", but like the Muslim community there are those who refuse to face up to the challenge.
Immigration is another of these "difficult" issues.
The influx of Eastern Europeans is seen as a problem by many people and this is not restricted to the "white" community. I am slightly, but not entirely surprised at the amount of people from ethnic minorities who share similar concerns.
Britain is seen as an easy destination, however I would suggest that it is not EU migrants that may be a problem, but non-EU ones. The sight of the unruly groups of men at Calais is disturbing to most people and the French governments seeming unwillingness to deal with the problem always seems to be thrown back at the UK. They tell us that the benefits we allow immigrants make the UK a very attractive destination.
Immigration is and will remain an issue that needs to be tackled in an open fashion without the false accusations of racism thrown at anyone who dares talk about immigration control.
Open borders as demanded by some would inevitably lead to chaos.
But even the BBC (of which I am and remain a firm supporter of) has apparently shied away from reporting the issues involved and the opinions of people which do not fit in with the so-called "liberal" agenda we are all supposed to follow.
The Times has serialised the memoirs of former Editorial Director Roger Mosey.:
..he explains how the Ten O'Clock News "sanitised" a report on an area by leaving out interviews with members of the white community who made "hard" comments.
It is no wonder that so so many traditionally Labour voters went for UKIP in this unhealthy climate. Whether the liberal establishment or the left like it there is a problem and it is not being addressed.
Shouting "racist" doesn't help and probably backfires.
No one wants racism to fester except perhaps the very far-right, but such racism and intolerance is not, I repeat not limited to the "white" community.
It exists within the Muslim community towards non-believers, Jews and apostates. It exists between different ethnic communities themselves and is a barrier to society moving forward.
Only through an open and rational debate can we tackle the problems arising.
- Freedom of worship is fine, but must be subject to a common law for all, a secular legal system.
- Knife crime and gang culture must be tackled with the participation of the communities particularly affected.
- Immigration does need to be controlled, but numbers not race should be the central starting point.
Of course the easily offended brigade will probably find some way of taking exception but that's what they always do.
Let's get serious, these issues need to be discussed.
Letting them fester in the background is not an option.
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