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Terrorism is not new. That’s clear enough. If it seems peculiarly disturbing and alarming in its present form, this is first because the acts of terror we are experiencing seem so random and indiscriminate that it is all but impossible to guard against them. The only means of doing so is to identify and arrest the terrorist before he acts. This is very hard because it is always probable”€”indeed it is certain”€”that some will be under the radar or will slip through the net. Second, the targets are no longer the powerful, but ordinary people going about their normal business in the streets or, like the Manchester victims, attending a pop concert.

This, I”€™m afraid, is why we have to accept that terrorism of the sort we are now enduring will be with us for a long time. It is not directed at the powerful. When Balfour murdered the Archbishop, when the OAS tried to kill General de Gaulle or the IRA bombed the Brighton hotel in an attempt to kill Margaret Thatcher and members of her Cabinet, their reason for choosing these targets was understandable, if deplorable. But when lorries are driven into crowds or young people are murdered by a suicide bomber at a pop concert, we can”€™t make sense of it. You can guard a president or prime minister, but you can”€™t guard every gathering of ordinary citizens or people making their way to or from work, or enjoying themselves at a café table in a public square.

Security agencies have a big and necessary role, but the real battle against Islamist terrorism will be fought within Islam itself. In a war of ideas it’s the Muslim majority who must win the argument if the terrorist ideology is to be defeated; and this will be a very long and dangerous battle.