WE failed to welcome people to our isles on the basis of Christian hospitality and heritage.

Multiculturalism was the result, and our big mistake. We no longer knew who we were and didn’t really know who the incomers were but decided to live together and hope for the best.

We got the worst.

We uncertain, insecure islanders created the very opposite of our liberal hopes, and subsequent studies showed how multiculturalism generated separatism, each community doing its own thing in isolated ghettoes, breeding extremism and eventually terrorism.

Now, in this Third Millennium, the cultures – our own and all the others – wearily cope, seeking to pick up unfamiliar pieces as though in the wake of some huge explosion at a jigsaw puzzle factory.

This weekend an expert in the field came to stay the night in Blackburn for two public talks.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali grew up in Muslim Pakistan, born to converts from Islam.

He experienced hardships as a Christian in Karachi, eventually becoming Bishop of the impoverished area of Raiwind in mid-1980s.

As extremist Sharia Law took over the nation, he saw both Muslims and Christians suffer.

His views on the dangers of Sharia coming to Britain are quite educational after having experienced it from a Pakistani perspective.

He eventually became Bishop of Rochester, and then entered the House of Lords.

Shortly after making the short-list of two for Archbishop of Canterbury, he resigned to start a new Christian venture.