“We are solidly with you. We are together.” David Cameron uttered the words in French to reinforce his message.

He further strengthened them following his visit with the French President, Francois Hollande, to the theatre where most of the victims of the Paris terrorism massacre were killed, by remarking that the two leaders had stood “shoulder to shoulder".

But until Britain actually commits forces to combat Isil in its Syrian stronghold we’re not quite “shoulder to shoulder” with the French. And while that moment might come soon, one of the most chilling observations prompted by the Paris atrocity has been spoken by a prominent British Muslim.

A moderate Muslim, let me instantly add. Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, has admitted he worries that his two children - teenage daughters - might become radicalised. How? Because, according to Mr Khan, most Muslims have “come across someone with extreme views at some point”.

This means that though most Muslims wish harm to no one, and very few are actually terrorists, the number of Muslims sympathetic to at least some of the barbarous ideology of the extreme fundamentalists is larger than we like to think. Mr Khan says: “I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to challenge hideous views of seemingly intelligent and articulate people. People who look and sound like normal Londoners, until they say that 9/11 was a Mossad (Israeli secret service) conspiracy, that the Jewish workers in the twin towers were tipped off and escaped.”

Crushing Isil in its Middle East heartland might prove the easy bit in dealing with this global menace. We face a serious enemy within here. But the very worst reaction would be a backlash of suspicion and discrimination against Muslims in general. The vibes would be picked up and extremism fuelled.

Under the grim cloud of the Paris slaughter, perhaps you missed it. I did. But last Saturday was the inaugural Day of the Hedgehog. If not quite as thrilling as Day of the Jackal, it is nevertheless a heart-warming initiative to save probably Britain’s best-loved mammal.

Since the 1950s, their numbers have declined from around 30million to barely a million. Many children today have never seen a hedgehog.

At Chez Mead over the years we’ve saved a couple – a cattle-grid victim and an orphaned youngster, both seemingly dead yet revived by warmth, water or milk and a little cat food. My wife, Britain’s best wild animal tamer, used to hand-feed a garden hedgehog with her home-made ginger biscuits.

Hedgehogs don’t immediately curl up at danger. Their first impulse is to run away. The back view of a hedgehog trundling off – usually at impressive speed - always suggests a certain grumpiness.

After councils stopped cutting roadside verges in the 1970s, my impression was that hedgehog numbers increased. But sanitised farmland, increasing traffic, tightly-fenced gardens and developments ranging from industrial estates and retail parks to patios and conservatories are responsible for what the 11,000-member British Hedgehog Preservation Society, originators of Hedgehog Day, say is a perfect storm against the humble hedgehog.

We should help them in our gardens if we can. And reflect that in the desert we are creating for all our wildlife, we too, eventually, will be unable to survive.