A guy sat down across the gangway from me on Eurostar toParis. He was acting very strangely: constantly checking in his backpack, then clutching the arms of his seat in an extremely tense manner.Sweat was pouring down his forehead – and his chest was literally heaving withnerves.

I had woken that morning to the news of the alleged terror plot to blowup ten planes. I had been much relieved that I was travelling by train thatday, but now – well, I must have been staring in a very obvious mannerat the man, for the man turned to me and in a real Bronx accent said:

“I am so scared. I have to fly home on Sunday. It’s taken me ten yearsto take a flight at all. I’m so scared of flying anyway – and now this!I’m going to die. I phoned my mother at 3am this morning – but she can’thelp me. Can you help me? Am I going to be alright?” And he startedcrying.

Having now mentally established in my own judgement that he was not aterrorist but simply a 40 year old theatrical New Yorker, Michael – whowas literally terrorised – I did my best. Being pragmatic I said that Ithought flying on Sunday (today was a Thursday) would be safer thanusual given the current extra levels of security. Not much comforted wethen explored the possibility of him taking a boat back – but theinternet only delivered a cruise once a month. As the journey continuedMichael relaxed a little. I suggested that he try and enjoy Paris andthat the situation would be much clearer by the time he was due to fly.And eventually his breathing returned to normal and he did seem to relaxa bit. He thanked me for my kindness – and that was that. I am sure hemade it home just fine.

The postscript to this is that Michael was white Caucasian. Yet hisbehaviour was very suspicious, though in the event it was nerves abouthis own well-being rather than intention to cause harm to others thatwas the cause. I did what any traveller needs to be doing: observed – checked – and was reassured substantively enough not to need to relay my observations.

Now Michael was not (as far as visual profiling could tell) a Muslim.And my point is that the calls for racial profiling in order to speed upsecurity checks are dangerous. We all should be checking behaviour – notskin colour. Yes, we should be checking the behaviour of everyone andanyone. Nervous person with a backpack – yes, be vigilant and evensuspicious – whatever their skin colour. Non-white person speaking a foreign language – no, don’t be.

Racial profiling would lead to the persecution of innocent people. Thatmight be an acceptable price to pay if it actually helped stoppedterrorism, however I don’t think I would make much of a terrorist myselfbut even I can work out what I’d do if the security services startedusing skin colour (or similar) to decide who to be suspicious of. I’djust switch the appearance of those used in terrorist operations. Lookcarefully at the appearance of many of those arrested for terrorism -there are plenty amongst them who could easily pass themselves off witha different appearance, clean shaven and talking English.

It is regrettable, but not surprising, that non-Muslim travellers stareharder at those who look Muslim at the moment. That is what our Muslimcitizens are having to endure whilst we all, together, work out how bestto address catching terrorists without persecuting the innocent. But being terrorised and abandoning our beliefs such as being innocent until proved guilty and equality before the law – well, that’s just what the terrorists want usto do.

Make no mistake: terror is stalking our land – and no citizen ofBritain, Muslim or non-Muslim, can escape the consequences of the evilthat is being done in the name of Islam.

We are all in this together. To win, we need to bridge the schism thatterrorist atrocities have opened up. We need to disentangle theterrorists from mainstream Muslims in the British psyche – at the sametime as breaking down the walls of separation between Muslim communitiesand others.