Is the government about to repeat past errors by consulting only those who will tell it what it really wants to hear?

Soon after the bombings of July 7 the Government quickly gathered the leaders of the Muslim community.

There was widespread condemnation of the bombings but the government wanted to ensure how they could best educate young Muslims and target the extremist element within the community.

In a hastily arranged meeting, more to allay fears than to get anything done, the familiar faces within the community stepped forward. Labour MP's, Labour donors and Labour peers made up the list of luminaries.

And if they were not Labour party members in one way or another they had been awarded a title by the Labour Party.

Whilst no fault of their own it seemed these individuals are now burdened with the responsibility of rooting out the extremist element in the community.

The government it seems was on the road to making the very same mistakes of the past.

It was simply asking the people it could trust to tell them what they wanted to hear.

It was unfair to ask these individuals to tackle a problem that is more complicated than anyone can imagine.

There is no doubting the knowledge and experience of some of the delegation.

Some have represented the community very well at many critical moments through recent years.

However, others on this delegation knew little of what youth and young people in their community are thinking.

Soon after this delegation gathered the government called another meeting inviting imams from Britains mosques and senior Muslim leaders to a meeting - a move that again is fraught with controversy.

Our Imams are pious and trustworthy people but do most Imams know anything of what is going on within their own neighbourhoods?

Do they know of the Muslim youth culture that has developed over the past 20 years?

And are would be bombers actually attending mosques? We doubt it.

Almost all mosques have for many years dis-associated themselves from any extremist elements and banned them from their premises.

We as a community know this and it is surprising how highly-paid TV and newspaper journalists still ask the same questions when they descend upon a neighbourhood about how mosques are recruiting grounds for suicide bombers.

The government has finally understood that it needs the help of the community if it is to defeat this 'Evil ideology'.

But by simply following the tried and tested route as it has when launching a political campaign it has made the same careless errors once again.

And that in these testing times can be a very dangerous thing.